Dropped Cigarette Causes Small Fire In Sandy Hook House

By Andrew Gorosko

Sandy Hook firefighters responded to a home at 6 Oak Drive about 8:04 pm on August 2, following a call for help from a woman there who had inadvertently dropped a burning cigarette into an upholstered chair.

The living room blaze caused an estimated $20,000 in property damage.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead said that many firefighters were at the nearby Riverside Road firehouse at the time, resulting in 37 volunteers responding to the blaze with six fire vehicles. The company had just returned from a pair of calls, the first a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Wasserman Way and Berkshire Road and the second a commercial fire alarm on Washington Avenue.

Some Newtown Hook & Ladder firefighters also went to the scene. Hawleyville firefighters were alerted.

Oak Drive is in the Buttonball Drive neighborhood, off Glen Road.

Chief Halstead said the victim of the fire, Sherry Powell, who is in her 60s, was checked at the scene by members of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Ms Powell was home alone at the time of the incident, the fire chief said.

Chief Halstead said that on arriving at the scene, about three minutes after the call, he looked through a picture window and spotted a fire burning within the living room. He used a fire extinguisher in an initial attack on the blaze.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze with water within several minutes, Chief Halstead said.

Ms Powell had gotten out of the house before firefighters arrived.

The fire damaged the chair that Ms Powell had been sitting in, some adjacent curtains, and the living room walls. The woman had apparently fallen asleep while smoking, the fire chief said.

Hook & Ladder’s aerial truck stood by at Buttonball Drive during the incident.

Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to check for possible fires within walls.

The house is not habitable until it is cleaned, Chief Halstead said. Ms Powell was staying with others for the time being.

There were no pets involved in the fire at the house, which is insured for loss, the fire chief said. There was no fire damage to the building’s exterior, he said. Firefighters used smoke ejectors to exhaust smoke from the structure. Firefighters spent about one hour at the scene.