PENDLETON — On Tuesday night, looking back on her day, Pendleton resident Kathy Clarkson said it seems like a dream.

Or, rather, a nightmare.

The two-story home at 119 Franklin St. — where she’s lived for 32 years and raised four sons with her husband, now deceased — was extensively damaged by a fire Tuesday afternoon.

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“I stood there and watched my house burn,” Clarkson said, describing what she did after a coworker drove her home following an urgent phone call from a neighbor.

She works in Indianapolis and had gone in late after some workers finished up a job at her home.

“The house was engulfed in flames,” Clarkson said.

Nancy Noel, the neighbor who called Clarkson at work, said the situation started to unfold at about noon, when something very unusual happened: A man came to her door asking for a bottle of water to pour on the house across the alley because it was on fire.

When Noel went outside, she saw it was true.

“The fire was right there at the air conditioner and it just shot right up (the side of the house),” Noel said. “It just blew up immediately.”

Flames soon were shooting out the roof of the two-story home that dates back to 1898.

According to Pendleton Fire Chief Jeff Moore, the department was dispatched at 12:18 p.m. Fire departments from Ingalls, Lapel, Noblesville, Anderson McCordsville and Fortville also responded.

Pendleton police showed up, too, and were able to help in a special way, Noel said.

“They did manage to save the dog,” she said. “The police broke in and saved the dog.”

The dog, Maggie, is Clarkson’s 14-year-old Westie.

Firefighters also saved many precious possessions while they fought the blaze: “my husband’s flag for his funeral, my father’s flag from his funeral, old pictures,” Clarkson said.

And her wedding ring, which they found after she told them where she left it that day.

“I think there were seven or eight fire departments that were there, and they were wonderful,” Clarkson said.

Moore said firefighters were on the scene until about 4:15 p.m.

He said it will be up to the state fire marshal, who had an agent on the scene, to determine the cause of the fire.