SPENCER, Iowa — One child is in critical condition following a house fire Friday morning in Clay County.

According to the Spencer Fire Department, crews were dispatched around 9:30 a.m. to the 100 block of DeLoss Court on reports of a house fire with smoke and visible flames.

Fire crews arrived to find heavy fire venting from the front of the residence and learned that one child was in the residence and previous rescue attempts had failed due to the flames and smoke. Two attack lines were placed to extinguish the fire.

Once the fire was under control an aggressive search for the missing four-year-old boy was initiated. The child was taken to a local hospital via ambulance but was later transported via air medical services to a Minnesota hospital in critical condition.

The home suffered extreme fire and smoke damage throughout and caused a neighboring residence to suffer fire damage to the garage and smoke damage to the interior.

An investigation revealed that the fire has started in the living room of the home but due to extreme damage to cause was found.