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Resident Succumbs To Injuries Received During Sunday Morning Fire

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One person died from injuries sustained after a fire broke out inside their Sandy Hook home Sunday morning.

Firefighters from all five Newtown fire companies were initially dispatched to 92 Alpine Drive just after 5 am July 14, after being alerted to a fire inside the home there. The first firefighter on the scene reported a fire centered around a bed and one female suffering serious burns.

According to Fire Marshal Richard Frampton, a caregiver at the home was able to get the elderly woman onto the floor. The first firefighter on scene “then got the woman out” of the house, Frampton told The Newtown Bee Monday morning. The firefighter then returned inside and “with a portable fire extinguisher, extinguished the fire,” Frampton said.

The woman was then transported to the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital. Local officials learned later in the day she had succumbed to her wounds.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief Ryan Clark had command of the scene.

Clark said the caregiver received burns to her hands “in the process of helping the elderly bedridden woman out of the bed.”

The caregiver and the third woman in the home, the daughter of the deceased, who was able to exit the house on her own, were both checked for smoke inhalation. Neither went to the hospital.

The home is at the corner of Alpine and Capitol drives in the Riverside section of Sandy Hook. According to the online assessor’s database, the home is owned by Frank and Margaret Piazza.

Sandy Hook, Botsford, Hook & Ladder and Hawleyville apparatus and manpower responded to the scene. Dodgingtown was held at its station.

Firefighters took some of the home’s sheetrock out, “checking for extension in the walls near and above the bed,” according to Frampton. They wet down all areas and also did ventilation, Frampton and Clark both added.

Clark estimates 20 firefighters responded to the scene.

“We were lucky that there were so many firefighters who live in the area, who responded directly and were able to help immediately,” he said. “We had multiple volunteers from our department and Hook & Ladder who were there within four minutes of being dispatched.

“The fire was extinguished less than four minutes later,” he added.

The fire marshal’s investigation determined the fire was electrical in nature.

“It appears it was electrical, a cord got pinched on the bed. The fire started at the baseboard and caught the bed on fire,” he said.

CT State Police fire marshals were at the home on Monday to conduct an investigation, he said, because of the fatality.

“They also determined the fire was electrical in nature,” Frampton confirmed July 16.

The American Red Cross responded on Sunday, due to the home’s damage and the need for the victim’s daughter and caregiver to find temporary housing. There was too much smoke damage for them to remain in the home, according to the fire marshal. One dog in the home was safe and out of the house on Sunday, uninjured.

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

A Nuvance ambulance and Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue’s ladder truck, outside the home at 92 Alpine Drive early Sunday morning. One woman died and another received minor injuries after a fire broke out in a bedroom in the home. —Bee Photo, Hicks
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