Frigid Conditions—

Huntingtown Fire Severely Damages Farmhouse 

By Andrew Gorosko

In frigid conditions late Wednesday night, an estimated 50 town volunteer firefighters battled a stubborn house fire at the Pavone farmhouse at 168 Huntingtown Road, which severely damaged the structure.

The apparently accidental blaze caused so much damage to the old farmhouse that it likely will need to be demolished, said Fire Marshal Bill Halstead. The fire caused the main roof section of the building to collapse.

The house sits on a rise on the west side of Huntingtown Road, between that street’s intersections with Brushy Hill Road and Maltbie Road.

Botsford Fire Chief Wayne Ciaccia was incident commander at the blaze.

Firefighters were able to save a barn that is attached to the house and also save a number of small livestock, apparently sheep, which were kept in that barn, Chief Ciaccia said.

The elderly Carmelo Pavone, who was home alone when the fire was discovered, was not injured in the blaze. After discovering the fire, Mr Pavone went next door to a nearby house where other family members live to alert them of the blaze, the fire chief said.

Two Botsford firefighters received minor injuries after stumbling and falling on ice that had accumulated at the scene after the water used for firefighting froze solid. The town road crew was called in to sand the icy area.

Chief Ciaccia said the incident was the worst house fire in Botsford since a December 2002 blaze that destroyed a home at 12-A Pine Tree Hill Road.

Mr Halstead returned to the scene Thursday morning to investigate the cause of the fire. The blaze may have been caused by a chimney fire that progressed into a structure fire, he said. A damage estimate was not available.

Botsford, Sandy Hook, and Newtown Hook & Ladder firefighters fought the fire at the scene. Dodgingtown and Hawleyville firefighters ferried water to the scene from a fire hydrant positioned on Hattertown Road in Monroe more than a mile away. Firefighters spent several hours at the scene.

A major problem that firefighters encountered was lack of water to fight the fire, said Chief Ciaccia.

When he arrived after the 9:56 pm fire call, flames were leaping out of the front of the house, Chief Ciaccia said. Flames then engulfed the structure’s interior.

It was difficult to get enough water fast enough the stop the fire, Fire Ciaccia said.

At one point, firefighters simply ran out of water.

They then broke through some ice in a nearby pond and found sufficient water to fight the blaze, he said. It took several hours to completely extinguish the fire. Botsford firefighters returned to the scene twice to put out burning embers.

Although fire trucks carry water within onboard tanks, those tanks do not hold enough water to extinguish major fires.

“I can’t say enough about the guys who were there. They worked as a team,” said Chief Ciaccia of firefighters’ work to put out the blaze.

On Thursday morning, fire officials picked through the charred wreckage at the farmhouse, carefully walking along icy slopes there in seeking to learn what caused the blaze. Charred debris littered the area.