A fire in Altoona on Tuesday morning, destroyed one home and damaged another. Carl Brown, who is a Vietnam veteran and a former US Navy Corpsman, says he was playing video games yesterday morning, when he noticed an orange flicker out of the corner of his eye, and realized that it was flames. Fortunately, both Brown and his caretaker, Bobbi Wagner, were able to escape unharmed, but the house on Eveningtide Avenue, is now believed to be a total loss. The flames reached high enough to melt a power line after it is believed that they got started somehow on the back porch of Brown’s home. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but it is believed to have been accidental. Damage to the home is estimated at about $75,000, plus another $2,000 to $3,000 in damages to a nearby neighbor’s home.