House fire starts shortly after family returns home

On Monday afternoon, James and Jean Edwards were busy carrying out family mementos, photo albums and boxes of paperwork, waiting for fire investigators to tell them what had happened to their home at 147 Park St.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110524/NEWS02/705249971

Published May 24, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
House fire starts shortly after family returns home

By Susan Smallheer

SPRINGFIELD — The Edwards family, who had been on vacation for the past two weeks, returned home Sunday evening and had settled in to watch some television.

The phone rang. One of their neighbors called to tell them their house was on fire.

On Monday afternoon, James and Jean Edwards were busy carrying out family mementos, photo albums and boxes of paperwork, waiting for fire investigators to tell them what had happened to their home at 147 Park St.

The damage was dramatic. The rafters of their 1856 house were charred, exposing the house’s attic. Half the slate from their roof was on their lawn.

But the good news, according to James Edwards, was the house came through the fire structurally sound and can be restored.

Jean Edwards said the family had arrived home a short time before they found out the house on fire.

“We were only home 15 minutes,” she said, amazed at the coincidence. The fire was reported at 8:20 p.m., Fire Chief Russell Thompson said. Neighbors saw smoke pouring from the eaves of the roof and flames breaking through the roof.

James Edwards said he and his wife and their two daughters, 11 and 4, had lived in Springfield since 2002, when he was transferred to the Springfield area by the Department of Corrections. He works at the state prison in Windsor.

Monday afternoon, wearing firefighters’ boots borrowed from the Springfield Fire Department, Edwards went into the house and found items that needed saving. He and his wife filled their vehicles with important possessions, waiting for their insurance adjuster.

“This photo album isn’t damaged,” Jean Edwards said, thumbing through a pair of albums that appeared untouched.

Scott Adnams, a fire investigator with the Department of Public Safety, was working with Thompson to find out what happened.

According to James Edwards, the fire started on the second floor of their home, where the family’s bedrooms are located.

Thompson said the bedrooms and attic above them sustained the most damage, and much of the house received water and smoke damage.

By late afternoon, the fire chief said the cause of the fire will remain unknown. “It’s undetermined,” he said.

The fire chief said the fire was difficult because the slate roof had been laid on top of an old wood shingle roof, and the wooden shingles were burning, but trapped under the slate.

Firefighters had to rip off the slate to put the fire out, he said.

Edwards praised the Springfield firefighters and the other area fire departments who saved his house from destruction.

“They did a wonderful job,” he said. Edwards also praised the quality construction of the 19th-century home. “They made houses out of real wood back then,” said Edwards, attributing his home’s survival to the quality workmanship.

The fire chief praised the work of the fire crews who battled the Sunday evening blaze. Springfield, Chester and Charlestown, N.H., battled the fire, while Bellows Falls sent its rapid intervention team as well.

Russell Thompson, Springfield fire chief, discusses the fire in Springfield that caused extensive damage to this house.
Photo: Vyto Starinskas / Staff Photo