Fire Bowl Ignites

Wooden Deck In Sandy Hook

By Andrew Gorosko

About 5:45 am on Monday, March 8, as residents were waking up to start a new work week, a passerby traveling near the intersection of Toddy Hill Road and Longview Road noticed some smoke in the area and called emergency services to report a possible fire underway.

On arriving at the Davis residence at 55 Toddy Hill Road, firefighters encountered a deck fire in which the wooden structure near the two-story Colonial-style house had ignited and was burning.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead said that a firefighter who had responded directly to the scene after receiving the fire call used water from a garden hose at the house for an initial attack on the blaze.

Sandy Hook, Botsford, and Hook & Ladder firefighters were alerted of the structure fire, the fire chief said. On arriving, firefighters used water carried on a fire truck to put out the blaze.

Except for one firefighter who received a strained back during work at the incident, there were no injuries, the fire chief said. About 25 firefighters responded to the call.

On investigating the cause of the blaze, Chief Halstead, who is the town fire marshal, found that residents of the home had been using a metallic fire bowl for a fire on the deck the night before. Such broad, shallow devices, which sit on metal stands, hold burning firewood.

Chief Halstead said the deck fire likely started in one of two ways. Either a lit ember came out of the fire bowl and ignited the wooden deck, or heat was transmitted from the bowl to the stand and then to the wooden deck, which then ignited, he said. The fire chief estimated the fire damage at $5,000.

The fire bowl had been in use for burning wood until about 11 pm on Sunday night, he said.

There apparently had been some fire-retardant device in place between the fire bowl and the deck, but that device did not function to prevent the deck from catching fire, he said.

The fire on the wooden deck started directly beneath the area where the fire bowl had been in use, he said. The blaze does not appear to be suspicious, he said.

Three people were at home at the time that the fire was reported, the fire chief said. The section of the deck that caught fire was at least 20 feet away from the nearest exterior wall of the house, he said.

Chief Halstead urged that when people use devices such as fire bowls, they be certain that fires are completely out before leaving the devices unattended. Also, such devices should be kept away from areas with combustible material, he said.