Family Rebuilds Accessory Apartment Following Accidental Fire

By Andrew Gorosko

Hans S.B. Roegele looks intently at a detached accessory apartment at his family’s residential property on Chestnut Hill Road in Sandy Hook.

A little more than two years ago, that view at the four-acre property would have held the charred remains of a similar wooden structure that was heavily damaged in an accidental nighttime fire.

Mr Roegele, who works as a residential architectural designer in New York City, said that his family checked out the structural integrity of the damaged apartment, but realized that that best approach would be to reconstruct the wooden building at 40-A Chestnut Hill Road.

The former apartment, which was located about 50 feet from the circa 1789 house occupied by Hans’s parents, Helga and Bernhard Roegele, had served as a source of rental income for the Roegele family, Hans  explained.

Hans, who formerly worked for large architectural firms but now has his own business, oversaw the apartment construction project.

The new structure, whose exterior keeps with the “New England rustic” architectural style of the circa 1789 converted barn structure that it replaced, technologically improves upon what had stood there earlier, Mr Roegele explained.

The building is designed with energy conservation in mind, including features such high-mounted windows positioned to provide cross-ventilation, he said. Transoms are located above doorways for ventilation and light. The structure is well insulated, he said.

The apartment’s design visually emphasizes its ceiling height to create a sense of spaciousness, he said. A second-story  deck is positioned above an area where a patio will be constructed.

The apartment encloses 900 square feet of space.  It is above 750 square feet of  garage/storage space.

Some of the siding that was on the earlier building was salvageable and has been used as facing for the new structure, he said.

Construction on the new apartment started late last year following the Roegeles’ receiving approval for the project from town land use officials.

It would have been impractical to renovate the fire-damaged structure, so the family opted to rebuild to replace the former accessory apartment, Mr Roegele said.

On Sunday, May 5, 2010, a male tenant in his 50s, who had been sleeping in the former apartment fortunately escaped injury after the building accidentally caught fire.

A passerby driving on nearby Berkshire Road at about 8:46 pm had noticed the glow of fire at 40-A Chestnut Hill Road and placed an emergency call for firefighting help. The passerby then vigorously knocked on the door of the apartment that was afire to get tenant James Jarvis out of the burning building.

There were no injuries in the blaze.

Sandy Hook, Hook & Ladder, Botsford, Dodgingtown, Hawleyville, and Stevenson firefighters responded to the fire call.