Cause Under Investigation—

Explosion, Fire Extensively Damage Canaan House

By Andrew Gorosko

A massive explosion and fire of undetermined origin, which startled nearby residents late on the rainy night of Tuesday, April 13, caused possibly “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of damage to a three-story wing of Canaan House at Fairfield Hills, which had housed the public school system’s alternative high school program.

At 10:54 pm, the town’s emergency dispatch center, received a call alerting firefighters to the explosion. Several dozen Newtown Hook and Ladder, Sandy Hook, and Botsford firefighters responded to the scene to find that a large external heating-fuel tank had exploded and caught fire, shooting flames upward about 35 feet. The fuel tank, which contained thousands of gallons of #2 heating fuel, fed an adjacent external boiler for the 208,000-square-foot red-brick building.

Two firefighters received minor injuries at the fire. They were treated at the scene by the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Newtown Hook and Ladder Fire Chief Dave Ober said firefighters arriving at the burning Canaan House late on April 13 encountered flames reaching up toward the roof of the tall three-story masonry building. Firefighters wetted down and kept cool a propane tank, which stood next to the burning fuel tank-boiler assembly, he said. After preventing the propane from igniting, firefighters entered the building to put out the fire within, he said. A classroom on the southwest corner of the building wing was destroyed by the blaze.

Adjacent classrooms were damaged, as was a corridor and rooms along the opposite side of that corridor. Smoke damage occurred in the second and third stories of the building.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), state building inspectors, and Fleet Environmental Services were called to the fire scene. Fleet pumped out the several thousand gallons of fuel that remained in the fuel tank after the fire was extinguished, Chief Ober said.

Firefighters spent more than three hours at the scene. About one hour involved firefighting duties, he said. Fairfield Hills is equipped with fire hydrants.

There is no apparent structural damage to the massive Canaan House, Chief Ober said. The exterior of the building exposed to the explosion and fire is fire blackened.

Local and state fire officials walked through the wreckage of the fire Wednesday morning, searching for clues that might lead them to discover the origin of the blaze.

A large plywood enclosure formerly had housed the boiler that stood next the fuel tank, which exploded and burned April 13. The plywood structure lay in ashes at the foot of the boiler.

Wisps of condensed water vapor rose from the fire-blackened boiler as the drone of high-powered cleaning equipment was heard in the background.

“A Large Boom”

Peter Genest of 68 Queen Street watched Wednesday afternoon as work crews tackled the task of cleaning up and securing the damaged wing of the building, which had housed the town’s alternative high school program, which serves 15 students.

 Mr Genest said he was working in his basement late Tuesday night about 2,000 feet away, when he heard a “large boom.” His house vibrated. “It was serious concussion, I’ll tell you,” he said. He then drove to the site and saw the conflagration, plus the firemen on their way there to put it out.

The blast reportedly was heard two miles away.

“I am just so grateful that no one was in the building at the time the explosion occurred,” noted Newtown High School principal Bill Manfredonia. “The alternative education program was moved to Newtown Middle School, most likely until the end of the school year.”

 Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff noted that the Newtown High School’s technology department was supposed to be moved to the middle school during the schools’ spring vacation on April 19 through April 23.

 “We had hoped to do it during a quiet period like spring break,” said Dr Pitkoff. “But we may have to wait until the end of June.”

Town fire officials called in investigators from the state fire marshal’s office Wednesday morning to investigate. It remains unclear what caused the explosion and fire. Mechanical problems are being investigated as a possible cause.

State police spokesman Sergeant J. Paul Vance said April 15 the fire’s origin is “still undetermined.”

“We don’t know what the cause is,” said Newtown Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said April 14. It is unclear whether an explosion caused a fire, or whether a fire caused an explosion, he said. Mr Halstead said the damage “could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.

Impact On FFH Closing

The town is scheduled to buy the 189-acre core campus at Fairfield Hills, including Canaan House, from the state for $3.9 million by April 30.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said on Wednesday that he doesn’t know how the explosion at Canaan House would affect the anticipated closing on the sale of the Fairfield Hills campus.

“I don’t know what the long-term effect will be,” he said, adding he would be talking to Richard Nuclo of the Strategic Management Division of the state’s Office of Policy and Management about whether the anticipated closing date can still be met.

As far as the repairs to the building, the state is responsible, he said.

He said personnel from DeMarco, Miles and Murphy, the company the state Department of Public Works (DPW) contracted with to manage and provide security at the campus, and DPW were “right on the spot” following the incident.

The state had its insurance inspectors review the fire damage, Mr Rosenthal said. A professional cleanup crew is making repairs, he said. The destroyed equipment will be hauled away, he added.

Ironically, it has seemed that just when the town is ready to buy the property, something adverse happens and the sale is postponed, Mr Rosenthal said. The town was on the verge of buying Fairfield Hills in December, but then the heating fuel spill occurred, resulting in a delay.

The town has been renting Canaan House space from the state for offices for the public schools, fire marshal, and the town land use, health, and building departments.

Previous Problems

The external heating system for Canaan House, which caught fire and exploded on April 13, destroying itself and heavily damaging a section of that building, also was the source of a massive heating fuel spill at Canaan House, which occurred on the snowy weekend of December 6-7.

That fuel spill required a cleanup project that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and is still not complete. The fuel spill cleanup disrupted operations at the school system offices.

Following the December fuel spill, the external heating system was moved about 50 yards to allow spill cleanup work to proceed. Approximately 4,550 gallons of #2 heating fuel spilled last December, requiring extensive soil excavation.

A much smaller amount of fuel spilled after the April 13 incident, fire officials said. An environmental cleanup firm was called to the scene to contain that spill and remove the several thousand gallons of fuel which remained in the fuel tank after the fire was extinguished.

An external heating system was in use at Canaan House because the central steam plant, which had heated the many buildings at the former psychiatric institution, closed after the institution shut down in 1995.

(Reporters Larissa Lytwyn and Jan Howard contributed to this story.)