Fire wrecks old farmhouse
|
|
Salisbury firefighter Justin Allen’s faceguard is coated with ice after fighting a house fire at a farm in Salisbury on Thursday morning in freezing temperatures. VYTO STARINSKAS / RUTLAND HERALD |
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis Herald Staff - Published: January 16, 2009
SALISBURY — Firefighters from four towns worked all day to douse a blaze on West Creek Road, but were unable to save the 100-year-old farmhouse.
"Smoke was coming out the eaves and the roof had started to buckle by the time we got there," said Salisbury Fire Chief Gary Smith, who arrived at 34 West Creek Road shortly after firefighters were called to the scene at 9:15 a.m. Thursday.
No one was living at the house, which the chief said had been undergoing renovations at the time of the fire and no one was hurt in the blaze.
When the last embers were extinguished in the building's basement 10 hours after firefighters arrived, little was left of the two-story house that has belonged to the local Quesnel family for several generations, according to the chief.
The home was a total loss.
"Once the fire got a foothold in the partition and mushroomed out, it was gone," Smith said.
He said investigators quickly identified the source as an overloaded electrical wire near a first-floor bathroom.
"There was nothing suspicious about this fire," he said.
A Vermont State Police investigator agreed with Smith's findings.
Firefighters from Middlebury, Whiting, Cornwall and Brandon helped extinguish the blaze.
Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.