A Waukee family was not home when their house sustained heavy damage from a fire Friday morning.

Waukee, West Des Moines and Clive fire crews were called to 2280 S.E. Willowbrook Drive in Waukee around 11 a.m. Friday.

Once there, firefighters found smoke and flames shooting from the roof of the three-car garage attached to the newly-built home at the corner of Southeast Westown Parkway and Southeast Willowbrook Drive.

The flames, according to eyewitnesses, reached high above the rooftop of the home.

Tracy Mundil lives just five houses away from the site of the fire and said she wasn't aware of what was happening until she heard sirens from the fire trucks.

"We'd only been home maybe 10 minutes and my daughter started yelling,'The neighbor's house is on fire,' and we all started running out to see what was going on," Mundil said. "People were just flocking to this area. There were neighbors everywhere."

Mundil said the homeowners, Nicholas R. and Kara M. Larson, according to the Dallas County Assessor's website, moved to the neighborhood about two months ago and have a small child. Fire crews say no one was home at the time of the fire.

Matt Sprague of the Waukee Fire Department said the fire was contained to the garage area. A single vehicle appeared to have been parked in the garage at the time of the fire. It appeared to be a total loss. A home under construction next door did not appear to have been damaged. 

Fire investigators were immediately on the scene. Sprague said he did not know how the fire started.

A man who identified himself as the homeowner declined to comment on the fire saying, "I just got here and it's like this. I probably don't have anything to say."