Propane tanks caught fire in the garage of a western Wisconsin home over the weekend, igniting a blaze that leveled the single-family house, authorities said.

The fire in the 700 block of 72nd Street just north of Somerset sent grayish-black smoke belching hundreds of feet into the cloudless sky late Saturday afternoon.

No one was at home at the time the blaze erupted about 5 miles east of the Wisconsin-Minnesota border, Fire Chief Travis Belisle said Sunday.

"The explosions that were heard were propane tanks ... in the [attached] garage, which is also the point of origin," said Belisle, who described the home as "a total loss."