Homeowner Maria Neumeyer sat outside her home crying as friends tried to calm her down.
Neumeyer said she was clueless about a cause for the fire that started in her son's bedroom in the home located at 16 S. 10th St. Her son was not home at the time of the fire.
No one was injured and it took eight firefighters about 10 minutes to put the fire completely out.
Belleville Fire Chief David Martinson said the upstairs of the home is "extensively gutted. There's not much water damage to other parts of the residence," Martinson said.
When firefighters arrived about 11:30 a.m., they found huge flames shooting out of the window, which is situated at the south end of the home.
The crew went through the front door and upstairs to where the fire was to battle the flames, Martinson said.
Neumeyer, who was downstairs in her dining room at the time of the fire, said she "heard a loud noise that sounded like a tree fell on the house."
"I look around and tried to figure out what happened. Then, I started noticing smoke coming from upstairs. I called the fire department," she said.
Seven years ago, a woman shot her sick husband, her dog, and set four fires in her home before crawling into a closet and shooting herself in the side of the head in the house at 16 S. 10th St.
