Fire officials this week were continuing their probe into the cause of a September 2 Alpine Circle house fire that heavily damaged a two-story Colonial-style home on that road in the Riverside section of Sandy Hook, near Lake Zoar.

There were no injuries in the blaze at the Rebecco residence at 40 Alpine Circle where three adults live, said Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead.

No one was home when the fire started, with the blaze having been discovered by one of the residents who returned home at about 6:15 pm, he said.

The fire started in the basement, which was heavily damaged, and then spread upward to the first story, he said. Two pet dogs were able to get of the burning building unharmed, Chief Halstead said.

The loss due to the fire may exceed $200,000 in physical damage to the structure and its contents, but the house is definitely reparable, he said.

Although the damage can be fixed, it will be expensive to repair, he said. The structure is insured for damage.

The fire chief and others returned to the fire scene on the morning of September 3 and picked through the heavy damage in the basement in seeking to find the fire’s point of origin and its cause. The fire chief is also the town fire marshal, and thus investigates the cause of fires.

The fire started near a flight of wooden stairs in the basement and may have been caused by an electrical problem stemming from the presence of appliances, he said. The basement received extensive char damage in the blaze, Chief Halstead said.

More interviews will be conducted in seeking to pinpoint the fire’s cause, he said.

The first-story of the house received primarily heat/smoke damage, he said. The second-story received relatively less damage than the lower levels of the house, he added.

Tough Conditions

Of the high heat/humidity when the fire occurred, Chief Halstead said, “It took a toll on everyone.”

More than 50 local firefighters responded to the scene.

Volunteer firefighters from Sandy Hook, Botsford, Newtown Hook & Ladder, Dodgingtown, and Hawleyville responded, of which 36 firefighters were from Sandy Hook.

Southbury firefighters also responded, placing a fire crew on standby status the Sandy Hook main firehouse on Riverside Road.

The narrow curving roads in the hilly Riverside community alongside Lake Zoar were full of emergency traffic as fire vehicles traveled through the area during the fire, carrying water for firefighting.

Many people living in the neighborhood walked toward the fire scene in seeking to learn what had happened.

The three-bedroom Rebecco residence was built in 2005. It has an attached two-bay garage. The house is set well back from the curving end of Alpine Circle, which is a loop road that extends from Alpine Drive.

Chief Halstead said firefighters knocked down the blaze quickly, entering the basement and the first story of the building to put out the fire.

Firefighters used water from a neighborhood drinking water supply system to fight the blaze. They drew that water from fire hydrants and then shuttled it to the burning house. They set up a portable water tank near the house to serve as a reservoir for firefighting.

Firefighters were on the scene for about three hours.

Due to the stress caused by the day’s high heat and humidity, firefighting crews worked in rotation at the scene, Chief Halstead said.

Crews from the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps monitored firefighters’ vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration in determining when the firefighters could return for another round of firefighting after having rested.

This story is an expanded version of one that was first published Wednesday, September 4, 2014.