By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

J. Kurt Pohlgeers of Shelter Insurance Cos. leaves the porch of 312 Poplar St., one of three Ludlow homes destroyed by fire Monday night. The Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

LUDLOW - Investigators know where a fire that destroyed three houses started, but they don't know how it started.

After a couch caught fire Monday at 10:16 p.m. on a deck behind 314 Poplar St., the flames spread quickly through the frame house and then to two unoccupied homes on either side of it.

"This was like a tornado of fire," said neighbor Jeffrey Moore Sr., pointing to the charred wooden deck between the ruined houses.

Neighbors say three children had been left unattended in the house where the fire started.

"Three kids came running out yelling, 'Mister, mister, our house is on fire,' " said Eric Stiens, who tried to put out the blaze with a garden hose before firefighters arrived.

All three homes are a total loss, said Ludlow Fire Chief Terry Bandy.

The house at 316 Poplar was unoccupied, but neighbors said the owner was renovating it and had installed storm windows Monday.

A man who sometimes stayed at 312 Poplar had left his house shortly before the fire began, said his daughter, Cheryl Rourke.

The Red Cross is providing temporary shelter for the children at 314 Poplar and their parents, said spokesman Larry Herald.

Firefighters had the blaze under control by about 11:45 p.m., Bandy said. An electric line fell onto the first truck to arrive, shorting its circuits, and several minutes passed before another firetruck arrived.

"Once they got their truck here, they got the job done," said neighbor Wade Yates, whose home at 310 Poplar escaped damage.

Moore, who lives at 318 Poplar, wasn't so lucky. Flames melted vinyl siding on one side of his home, and burned items littered his yard.

He recently replaced plywood in his walls, and he credits the new wood with saving his home.

"The heat was cooking the sap right out of the plywood," Moore said.

Firefighters and police say the blaze remains under investigation, which should be completed by the end of the week.