NOTE: This story has been updated with additional details not available when coverage of this fire began last weekend.

Two people and a dog were displaced and an antique home was heavily damaged by fire early Sunday morning.

Fire within the residence was reportedly “well involved,” with flames showing through the rear roof, when the first firefighter arrived at 153 Boggs Hill Road at 5:54 am December 28. It took just shy of four hours before firefighters fully cleared from the scene.

The online assessor’s database shows the house as a circa 1900 Colonial with 3,300 square feet of living space. It also shows the current owner purchased the house in May.

The homeowner, the homeowner’s son, and a dog all made it out of the house without injury.

The Office of the Fire Marshal on Monday said the cause is officially undetermined, although investigators have a very good idea where the fire started.

Newtown Deputy Fire Marshal Steve Murphy said he and others are “pretty sure it started in the area of the wood stove, which makes sense with the damage that happened.

“There’s so much damage around it, however, it will be very difficult to say ‘This is exactly what happened,’” Murphy added.

Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company (DVFC) Captain Steven Osmolik was officer in command during the fire.

The main body of the house “is probably going to need a lot of renovations. The garage and master suite area has a lot of smoke damage,” he said Sunday afternoon. “The other side of it — the kitchen, and the back half of the house — is gone, unfortunately.”

Murphy confirmed Osmolik’s observations, saying there was “very minimal smoke damage” in the western half of the dwelling. A breezeway connecting the two sections “also has minimal damage,” Murphy further noted. The garage and two vehicles parked inside it were saved, he said.

The fire also damaged siding on the west side of the adjacent house at 151 Boggs Hill Road.

Residential Fire Alarm

The first call to Newtown Emergency Communications Center early Sunday morning was for a residential fire alarm at 153 Boggs Hill Road. Subsequent calls alerted dispatchers to the fire within the house.

All five of Newtown’s fire companies were dispatched to the property, which is within Dodgingtown’s district. The home is on the southern side of Boggs Hill Road between the intersections with Palestine and Mt Nebo roads.

A Hook & Ladder firefighter was reportedly first to arrive, and confirmed the fire. Osmolik was close behind and assumed command upon his arrival.

Firefighters had multiple challenges in battling the blaze.

Before the first fire truck arrived, propane tanks on the east side of the house started to release their contents, becoming a priority.

“There were four 120-gallon tanks there,” Osmolik said. “At least two started to release heavily into the air, putting more fuel to the fire.”

Firefighters immediately focused two hand lines on those tanks, according to the captain.

Once that area was controlled, firefighters began “an aggressive interior attack,” Osmolik said.

At one point the power lines from the home came off the residence and landed on one of the fire trucks, a pumper, in the driveway. Fire operations had to temporarily stop at that time.

“We told Eversource to get that resolved as quickly as they could,” Osmolik said. “They had a tech out there on scene already, but he had to go around to get his truck to where he could address that line.

“It took a few minutes, but once he was able to kill power we went back to work. It was a little nerve wracking, having those power lines drop on top of us,” he added.

Despite a snowstorm that dropped seven and a half inches of precipitation on Newtown during the Friday-Saturday overnight, roads were clear as first responders began arriving Sunday morning.

“The Town Highway department is good at keeping the roads clear, so they were clear until we had to start putting water on the fire,” Osmolik said.

Very low temperatures created issues with water, however, including one truck that had an issue with freezing and needed to be replaced with another for water supply, “but we got that back under control quickly,” Osmolik said.

Tankers shuttled water to the scene, with drivers using three different locations on nearby Hattertown Road to obtain water.

With temperatures around the 10-12 degree mark, water from the firefighting efforts created icy conditions in the driveway, around the house, and on Boggs Hill Road. A Public Works truck was called out to put salt down.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps also staged at the scene, per structure fire protocol. There were no injuries to any of the home’s inhabitants nor firefighters, Osmolik confirmed.

Mutual aid was provided by Bethel, Monroe, Redding, Southbury, and Stepney. Those companies provided tankers to the scene and coverage of Newtown’s stations during the call.

Firefighters cleared from Boggs Hill Road around 9:45 am.

The American Red Cross was called in to work with the men who were displaced by the fire. A press release from the nonprofit organization on Sunday afternoon confirmed five people responded on behalf of the Red Cross “to meet the family’s immediate needs.”

The Red Cross also provided a recovery envelope containing information helpful to families recovering from a fire, including tips on cleanup; notification of important contacts; dealing with damaged items; and more, according to the release. The Red Cross on Sunday also provided comfort kits — personal care items such as toothbrushes, deodorant, shaving supplies, and other items a person would need after being suddenly displaced by a fire.

Red Cross caseworkers will reach out to the displaced residents this week to work on a longer-term recovery plan, the organization also noted.

By mid-Sunday morning, an Eversource truck and a team from JP Maguire were still on scene.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.