Large fire damages Jamaica structures
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Correspondent Report - Published: January 24, 2010
JAMAICA — A three-alarm fire heavily damaged a nursery, storefront, an apartment and an attached house on Route 30 in the Rawsonville section of town Friday evening as firefighters from more than a dozen southern Vermont fire departments worked to contain the blaze.
Several firefighters sustained minor injuries, mostly from cuts as a result of slipping on the ice, but no one, including the tenants who were home when the fire broke out in one of a pair of residences near the center of the older building, was seriously hurt, said Jamaica Fire Chief Joel Beckwith.
The fire in the main building at "My Sister's Garden" broke out just after 7:30 p.m. and the first arriving fire officer immediately called for a second alarm due to the heavy smoke conditions when he got there.
Flames were soon roaring through the roof as fire crews began with a tanker shuttle and then established a water supply through 4-inch hoses run from a small pond across the street.
A third alarm sounded less than an hour later requesting ladder trucks from Stratton and Manchester as well as numerous engines and tankers from Winhall, Peru, Wardsboro, Londonderry, South Londonderry, Weston, Windham, Newbrook, East Dover, West Dover, Brattleboro and Townsend while many other towns as far flung as Williamstown and Chester rolled their fire engines to cover the vacant volunteer fire stations across the region.
"My best guess is that it was caused by something electrical right in the center part of the building," Beckwith said, adding that the nursery's office and the small apartment were "pretty well gone" but the store and the attached house at the complex were damaged.
Route 30 was shut down overnight and traffic was diverted through the nearby intersection with Route 100.
The fire was declared under control shortly after midnight and the last Jamaica crews cleared the scene and returned to their station at 5:45 a.m. Saturday.
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