A Winthrop couple is homeless following a fire that gutted their home Friday evening.

Winthrop Fire Chief Dan Brooks said the fire at the 42 Maranacook Road home of Nelson and Sherry Lavigne was reported about 5:30 p.m. Friday by a passer-by.

Brooks said no one was home at the time and no one was injured fighting the fire. However, some of the couple’s cats and kittens were still missing as of about 8:30 p.m. Friday.

“The building is gutted,” Brooks said. “They pretty much lost all their possessions.”

The report of the house fire brought aid from firefighters in Monmouth, and all the departments in the Lakes Regional Mutual Aid area, Fayette, Manchester, Readfield, Wayne, Mount Vernon and Vienna, turned up to shuttle water from nearby Maranacook Lake.

A two-car garage on the Lavignes’ property was undamaged, Brooks said.

He said a preliminary search indicated that the blaze might have originated near the woodstove, which was the primary source of heat in the two-story house.

“We’re guessing maybe some furniture was too close to the woodstove,” Brooks said from the scene Friday night.

Nelson Lavigne, a longtime employee of the town’s transfer station, and his wife were found and came to the fire for a while, and then planned to spend the night with family, Brooks said.

He said the couple said that they had insurance on the home.

The fire department was at the scene for about four hours.