Canaan House Fire Probe Continues

By Andrew Gorosko

Fire officials this week continued to investigate what caused a massive explosion and fire on the rainy night of April 13, which extensively damaged a wing of Canaan House at Fairfield Hills that had housed the public school system’s alternative high school program.

The fire remains under investigation, Newtown Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said April 21. Mr Halstead has been aiding the state fire marshal’s investigation of the blaze at the state-owned masonry building.

Fire officials are investigating a variety of possible causes, Mr Halstead said. Weather conditions may have played a part in the situation, he said. No firm damage estimate was available.

Cleanup crews were at Canaan House this week continuing the extensive work needed to make the damaged section of the building habitable again.

State police spokesman Sergeant J. Paul Vance said the origin of the explosion and fire is still undetermined.

The explosion and fire startled area residents late on the windy, rainy night of Tuesday, April 13.

Several dozen Newtown Hook and Ladder, Sandy Hook, and Botsford firefighters responded to the scene to find that a large external heating-fuel tank had exploded and caught fire, shooting flames upward about 35 feet. The fuel tank, which contained thousands of gallons of #2 heating fuel, served an adjacent external boiler for the 208,888-square-foot red-brick building. The fuel tank and boiler were destroyed in the blaze.

Two firefighters received minor injuries at the fire. They were treated at the scene.

Because it was late at night, no one was in Canaan House. The alternative high school program has been relocated to Newtown Middle School.

A classroom on the southwest corner of the building wing was destroyed by the blaze. Adjacent classrooms were damaged, as was a corridor and rooms along the opposite side of that corridor. Smoke damage occurred in the second and third stories of the building.

Workers pumped out several thousand gallons of fuel, which remained in the fuel tank after the fire was extinguished.

The town plans to buy the 189-acre core campus at Fairfield Hills, including Canaan House, from the state for $3.9 million.

The town has been renting Canaan House space from the state for offices for the public schools, fire marshal, and the town land use, health, and building departments.

The external heating system also was the source of a massive heating fuel spill outside Canaan House that occurred on the snowy weekend of December 6–7. More than 4,500 gallons of #2 heating fuel spilled, causing extensive soil and groundwater contamination, which required a lengthy and expensive state cleanup project.