Blaze devastates Forest Street home

0
169

A woman walks through debris after a fire destroyed the residence at 145 Forest St. in Naugatuck over the weekend. –RA ARCHIVE
A woman walks through debris after a fire destroyed the residence at 145 Forest St. in Naugatuck over the weekend. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — An early Saturday morning fire displaced a family of four from their Forest Street home, the borough’s fire chief said.

Nobody was home at the time of the fire at 145 Forest St., Fire Chief Kenneth Hanks said. There were no injuries due to the fire, he said.

The raised ranch home is owned by Pedro Pires, Hanks confirmed. Pires’ wife was coming home and found the house on fire, he said.

Hanks said the Pires are staying with family now.
The call came in at 12:44 a.m.

Firefighters arrived on scene within minutes, said Fire Lt. Albert Beltrami, who was with the first arriving unit.

When firefighters arrived, there was heavy fire, and it was burning through the roof at that point, he said. It appeared to be in the lower section of the split-level home in the kitchen and living room area, Beltrami said.

Hanks said firefighters knocked down the main body of the fire in about 15 to 20 minutes. It took longer to extinguish pockets of fire in debris due to the partial collapse of the roof, he said.

The fire caused significant structural damage to the house, Hanks said. Most of the family’s possessions were damaged by smoke or fire, he said.

The borough fire marshal is investigating the cause, but the fire may have started in the living room area, he said.

Pires serves as the vice president of The Chittenden Group, an independent insurance agency on Church Street.

In an email Saturday, Pires, said, “Thankfully my family is OK. Tragic loss of property but my wife and kids are fine, which is most important to me.”

Firefighters from Beacon Hose Company No. 1 in Beacon Falls responded to the scene, and Prospect remained on standby at borough fire headquarters, Beltrami said.

The street department applied sand on the road due to concerns about ice and slippery conditions, Hanks said.

Beltrami said there also was a live wire down across the road, and Connecticut Light & Power responded to shut down the power.

Borough firefighters have responded to at least three fires this past week.

He said the fire marshal continues to investigate the cause of a fire that displaced a woman and her two children from their home at 100 Conrad St. on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, firefighters extinguished a wall fire caused by a wood stove at 15 Wilson St., Hanks said. The wood stove wasn’t properly installed, he said.

As soon as firefighters returned from Saturday’s early fire, they responded to a fire burning inside the cab area of a box-type truck at the municipal parking lot between Church Street and Old Firehouse Road, Hanks said.

The cause is still being investigated, he said.