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Family escapes early morning house fire
Working smoke detectors helped a Springfield family escaped unharmed from a nighttime house fire in the early hours of Election Day.
www.eagletimes.com www.vnews.com
Family escapes early morning house fire
By TORY JONES
toryb@eagletimes.com
SPRINGFIELD — Working smoke detectors helped a Springfield family escaped unharmed from a nighttime house fire in the early hours of Election Day.
The Springfield Fire Department responded at 3:24 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 with a second-alarm assignment to a report of heavy fire and smoke coming from 7 Birch Court, a home occupied by the owner Mary Soubble and her family, according to Fire Chief Russ Thompson.
The first crews on the scene found all occupants out of the building, and heavy fire and smoke on the back side of the two-story wood frame structure, according to the fire chief.
Thompson said he credits the presence of working smoke detectors is with notifying the occupants in time to safely escape.
Within minutes of the fire department’s arrival, “turbulent smoke” from the front of the building ignited and blew out all of the front side windows, Thompson said.
The SFD used defensive tactics until vertical ventilation and a large-volume stream from the department’s Tower One unit stabilized the fire, he said.
One occupant was transported to Springfield Hospital by Charlestown Ambulance as a precaution, according to Thompson.
Interior fire crews from Springfield, Chester and Bellows Falls assisted at the scene, working to control and eventually extinguish the fire.
Walpole Fire Department responded with their Cascade, a truck used to fill air pack bottles, to fill numerous self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) cylinders. Windsor Fire Department covered the Springfield Fire Station.
The origin of the fire “leans toward an outside-in burn,” which delayed the smoke detectors from immediately sounding, according to Thompson.
The SFD advises residents to “take the time to make sure your smoke detection is ready to give you time to act,” he said.
Fire started on the outside and burned its way in. At 3:30 in the morning. On election night. Perhapse politically motivated? Highly suspicious at least.
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