BLOOMINGTON - Fire destroyed the attic and damaged the second floor of a near-west-side home Tuesday afternoon, but nobody was injured, a fire official said.

Dark, thick clouds of smoke, some of which drifted across Center Street, billowed from second-floor windows, and flames erupted from the roof of the home at 215 Seminary Ave. Resident Jeff Schwartz said he and three roommates - all Illinois Wesleyan University students - lived in the home, and none were home when the fire started.

Acting Assistant Fire Chief Nick Isaacs said light smoke was coming from the second floor when a neighbor called 911, but heavy smoke was coming out of the center of the building when his department arrived. The attic was burned away by the fire, the amount of damage on the second floor was unclear and the first floor likely suffered water damage, he said.

Isaacs said the students indicated they had places to stay.

Fire investigators will determine the cause of the fire and location where it began.

Schwartz said he was on a break between classes when a friend told him his house was on fire. He and the other roommates arrived while firefighters were still trying to extinguish the flames.

Schwartz said workers had been installing a kitchen on the second floor for the last two weeks, and they had been working at the house late Tuesday morning. He said his bedroom was on the first floor and the other three were on the second floor.

The heat melted siding on a neighboring house to the east, where firefighters poured water on the side and roof. Ruth Denney said she has lived in the neighboring home about 23 years, and smelled smoke early in the afternoon.

Denney said she found out about the fire from a neighbor.

The house was an older white wood-frame 2-story house with an attic, a porch and brick pillars in front. Neighbors said the area has a mix of homes owned by long-term residents and rented by students.

Jim Brennan, who lives two houses east of the fire, said he called 911 after spotting the smoke. He had just come back from a nearby grocery store when he smelled smoke, which he initially thought was coming from a wood-burning stove in the neighborhood.

But Brennan saw smoke when he looked out the back window, and soon saw where it was coming from.

Eunice Lowery and Dorothea White said they came to the fire out of curiosity.

"I feel so sorry for the people that live in there," Lowery said.