Freezing temperatures made it difficult for firefighters to battle a fire at a house outside New Hamburg early Tuesday morning.

Waterloo Regional Police say a neighbour noticed the house – on Huron Road near Haysville Road, south of New Hamburg – full engulfed in flames shortly after 12:30 a.m. and phoned 911.

Nobody was inside the house, which was undergoing renovations, at the time.

Firefighters responded and were able to extinguish the flames, although damage to the house was extensive.

Their efforts were hampered by cold temperatures, which hovered around -20 C through the overnight hours.

“It’s very difficult in the cold weather,” New Hamburg Fire station chief Russell Strickler tells CTV News.

“We had pump trucks that were freezing as we were pumping water.”

Also at issue was keeping the firefighters – at the peak of the fire, there were more than 30 on-site – warm.

Photographer Brent Mackie was also on scene, chronicling the fire.

He too says the frigid temperatures were almost unbearable.

“Twenty minutes, half an hour and I had to get back into the warmth. It was too cold out there,” he says.

The Ontario Fire Marshal has turned the investigation over to Waterloo Regional Police, but the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The house will be demolished.