Fire Destroys Home On High Bridge Road

By Andrew Gorosko

Fire investigators this week continued probing the cause of an intense blaze that destroyed a single-family house at 39 High Bridge Road in Botsford in a raging fire reported during the height of the evening rush on Friday, March 31.

As commuters returned home from work at about 5:35 pm, billowing plumes of black and gray smoke swirled upward from the burning one-story, concrete-block house, which is positioned several hundred feet north of High Bridge Road, near the Monroe town line.

Several dozen firefighters from Botsford, Sandy Hook, Newtown Hook & Ladder, Hawleyville, Dodgingtown, and Monroe responded to fight the fire, which apparently had been burning for some time before it was discovered and reported by passersby.

No one was home at the time of the fire, said Fire Marshal Bill Halstead, who is heading the fire investigation for the town. Mr Halstead is cooperating with fire investigators for the homeowner’s insurance carrier in probing the cause of the fire.

Mr Halstead said April 5 that the fire’s cause is yet undetermined and remains under investigation. “I don’t know how it started,” he said.

A damage loss estimate was not available for the house, which has been the residence of the Shaham family, Mr Halstead said. The family is comprised of a mother, her son, her daughter-in-law, and two children. Family members came to the scene as firefighters battled the blaze.

Mr Halstead had the state fire marshal’s dog unit inspect the site for the presence of any fire accelerants, such as gasoline, but none was detected. The presence of such substances can indicate if a fire was intentionally set.

The blaze amounts to a “total loss” involving the destruction of the house and its contents, Mr Halstead said. The intensity of the blaze caused the house’s kitchen to fall into the basement.

As firefighters worked to extinguish the stubbornly burning house, a secondary fire started behind the building, burning a grassy area. Firefighters put out that that blaze before it could spread any distance. The burning house that stands atop a rise is not near any other houses.

Firefighters set up a water supply network, with which they transported water about one-half mile in five tanker trucks from a fire pond at Wickes Lumber on Swamp Road to a portable water tank positioned at the High Bridge Road entrance to the burning house. 

The section of High Bridge Road near the fire was closed to traffic.

Jay Nezvesky, who is the United Fire Company of Botsford’s second assistant chief, served as incident commander at the blaze.

When the fire was reported, there were some firefighters in Botsford’s firehouse at 315 South Main Street, Mr Nezvesky said. Those firefighters arrived at the scene quickly and found that the roof of the house had already completely burned away, he said.

Mr Nezvesky estimates that about 40 firefighters responded to the scene to battle the blaze. About another 20 firefighters served on a stand-by basis, he said.

Firefighters worked to keep wet and cool a propane cylinder that was positioned at the rear of the burning house in order to keep the propane from igniting, he said.

Some firefighters received minor injuries while battling the blaze, Mr Nezvesky said.

Of firefighters’ efforts to put out the flames, Mr Nezvesky said, “Everybody did well … We don’t have a lot of fires in Newtown of this magnitude.”

Hook & Ladder’s aerial unit was employed to shoot water down onto the burning house.

Botsford firefighters kept a fire vehicle at the scene overnight to check for any possible problems, Mr Nezvesky said.

Botsford Fire Chief Wayne Ciaccia, who was out of the area when the fire was discovered, went to the fire scene on learning of the blaze. He helped supervise the firefighting effort.

Firefighters poured water on both the house’s exterior and into its interior in fighting the inferno, he said.

Fortunately, there were no other houses in the immediate area at risk of catching fire, he said.

While on its way to the fire at about 6 pm, a Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps ambulance was involved in an accident with a Chevrolet Express van at the intersection of Botsford Hill Road and High Bridge Road, police said.

The accident occurred when the ambulance driven by Roger B. Connor, Jr, 24, of 182 Hattertown Road was making a left turn from southbound Botsford Hill Road onto eastbound High Bridge Road, police said. The ambulance collided with the van on High Bridge Road, which was being driven westward there by Timothy Wilkes, 39, of  Danbury, police said. The left exterior rear-view mirrors of the two vehicles collided, according to police. Connor and ambulance passenger Joseph Farrell, 59, of 4 Hawthorne Hill Road, received minor hand cuts in the accident, police said. Police took no enforcement action.

 It has been several years since there was a fire in Botsford that did such extensive damage to a house as did the High Bridge Road fire. In severe wintry conditions, in December 2002, fire destroyed the Beck residence at 12-A Pine Tree Hill Road.