WILMINGTON — The cause of a house fire early Wednesday on Grant Street in Wilmington was not known as of Thursday morning, said Wilmington Fire Department Lt. Jeremy Rolfe.

The same house caught fire on Nov. 18, and there currently were no permanent householders residing there. However, law enforcement believes there were two homeless people inside the structure at the time of the 12:44 a.m. New Year’s Day fire who got out, according to Rolfe.

The blaze this week appears to have caused more extensive damage than did the November fire, Rolfe said. Wilmington firefighters did a “pretty quick knockdown” of the Wednesday fire, 10 minutes or so, said the lieutenant.

Firefighters remained on the scene about two hours.