URBANA — It's not often that firefighters go out and find their own work, but that's what happened to a veteran Urbana firefighter early Monday.

Urbana Fire Chief Mike Dilley said Lt. Rod Eichorn not only fought the fire that destroyed the home of Marian Martin at 102 Meadow Drive, he found it as well.

"We had been chasing smoke smells all night long," said Dilley of the calls that led to the discovery of the blaze on the one-block street just south of Florida Avenue and east of Race Street at 4:20 a.m.

About 2 a.m., firefighters were sent to 1505 S. Broadway Ave., on the west side of Blair Park and about three blocks north of Meadow Drive.

"It wasn't a working fire but there was a smoke smell," said Dilley. "We couldn't find it so we finally cleared." At 4:13 a.m., firefighters were sent to Pennsylvania Avenue and Anderson Street, even farther north and east of Meadow Drive, for another call of a smoke smell.

"They respond and smell the smoke but there wasn't a problem (there)," Dilley said.

That's when Eichorn, a 22-year firefighter, followed his instincts and his nose.

"He sees an orange glow southwest of his location," Dilley said, so Eichorn called METCAD to let the dispatching agency know they probably had a house fire. He just wasn't sure where.

"He keeps following the smoke and the flame and drives down Race (south of Florida) and looks down Meadow. He sees the flames and finds the house on fire. The poor guys are all out there without any help and they have a major fire," Dilley said.

It was 4:20 a.m. when he gave the dispatcher the address.

Dilley spent most of Monday afternoon and more time on Tuesday investigating the cause of the blaze, but said he's leaving it as undetermined for now, mostly because there was more than 3 feet of water still in the crawl space Tuesday, which meant an up-close inspection would have to wait.

"The fire originated in the kitchen floor area. I'm not certain if it was on or below the floor. It burned through the floor," he said.

Dilley said the home was a "very solid old home," built in 1941 in a Cape Cod style with dormers that stick out of the two-story structure.

Martin no longer lives in the home, which was filled with artifacts that she and her late husband, a retired University of Illinois engineering professor, collected on many trips abroad.

"We had flames shooting out at least 30 feet over the top of the roof," the chief said. "The fire ran the void spaces vertically and horizontally. It burned for a long time undetected because the house was not being lived in."

The second floor of the home had fallen through to the first by the time firefighters got there.

"Those lots are huge and there's a lot of vegetation. It's difficult to see. You can hardly see the house from the street with all the trees. At that time of night, it would not be easily detectable," he said.

Dilley said about 22 Urbana firefighters were helped by at least 10 Champaign firefighters in getting the fire under control. The fire was out by about 7:30 a.m., he said. Firefighters spent another couple hours overhauling and another two cleaning up their equipment.

Dilley estimated damage to the house and contents at $700,000, up from an initial estimate of a half-million dollars.