Family homeless after Worcester fire
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The fire-charred frame of a house off the Calais Road in Worcester is all that is left after a blaze Saturday morning destroyed the house. |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: January 12, 2009
WORCESTER – The Worcester fire chief has not yet determined the cause of a fire that destroyed a home on a frigid Saturday morning, but he has ruled out arson.
The fire, which was reported at about 5:30 a.m., left a family of four homeless and killed three pets, according to the Red Cross, which provided aid to the family at the scene at 223 Calais Road.
None of the family members were injured, according to Worcester Fire Chief Will Sutton, though they were transported to the hospital for a routine screening and later released.
Sutton has refused to identify the owners of the home despite repeated requests. He would only say that the family's last name was "Low." The phone directory lists Alex Low as the resident at 223 Calais Road in Worcester.
Sutton said he was not comfortable releasing the victims' full names without their permission.
According to a Red Cross news release, the family consisted of two adults, and two young children – a 3-year-old and a child 18 months old.
Two cats and a dog perished, and one dog survived, the Red Cross said.
Firefighters from Montpelier, East Montpelier and Middlesex responded to help Worcester firefighters with the blaze, along with a Montpelier ambulance crew.
Sutton said when he arrived at the home on the road that connects Worcester and Maple Corner in Calais, the house was already engulfed in flames.
"It was pretty well-involved by the time we got there," said Sutton. "We couldn't get into it, so we just fought it from the outside. When it was done, all that was left was the shell."
Sutton said firefighters had some trouble negotiating the steep driveway to the house, but he doesn't think that had much effect on the outcome of the fire.
"We couldn't get our primary engine as close as we wanted to the house," Sutton said. "The driveway had some ice on it and there was a vehicle parked up at top of driveway. I don't think that delayed anything. It was just one of those things we had to work around."
Firefighters were on scene for about seven hours, said Sutton, and were actively fighting the fire for four hours.
Though Sutton said he hasn't pinpointed the cause of the fire, the house was heated by a wood stove."It's very possible it is the wood stove," said the chief. "But I don't want to hang my hat on anything until we check on it further."
The temperatures were below zero Saturday morning, which can present problems for firefighters – gauges can freeze, ice can clog hoses. But Sutton said there were no equipment failures.
"It's always challenging to get everything going," Sutton said. "We didn't have any failures from that, but it always presents another set of challenges."
Sutton said due to the nature of the two-story, wood-construction house, it was simply too far gone when firefighters arrived to save it.
The family lost everything in the fire, said the Red Cross, which provided food and clothing, and the family has a temporary place to stay, said the Red Cross.
"The Red Cross will continue to work with this family as well to help them re-establish themselves as the days go by and additional needs are identified," the Red Cross news release said.
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