Full Text:

Early Morning Fire Destroys Sandy Hook Home

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

A Sandy Hook home and its contents were totally destroyed by fire, and its

resident was injured with burns in an early morning blaze Monday in Pootatuck

Park.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead said a home

at 29 Elmwood Trail owned and occupied by Laura Lavalette, 29, was destroyed

in the blaze.

Chief Halstead said the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps treated Ms Lavalette

at the scene for burns to the right hand. The ambulance corps transported her

to Danbury Hospital where she received further medical treatment and was

released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Fire Marshal George Lockwood said the cause of the fire was careless smoking.

There were no smoke detectors in the building, Chief Halstead said. He

estimated the property damage at $110,000. The structure will have to be

demolished, he said.

"She was very lucky to get out. Her dog woke her up," Chief Halstead of Ms

Lavalette's escape from the burning house. Ms Lavalette was alone in the house

with her dog at the time of the fire, he said. The dog also escaped injury.

Firefighters received the fire call from a neighbor at 3:30 am. The report

came in as a fire in the bedroom, Chief Halstead said.

Sandy Hook firemen arrived at the scene seven minutes later and saw a house

totally engulfed in flames, the chief said.

"As we were pulling up, fire was coming out of everywhere, the door, the

window," the chief said.

"This thing was really going when we got there. It was totally involved [in

fire]," he said.

"When we got there she [Ms Lavalette] was at a neighbor's house," the chief

said.

"The inside is gutted... There's nothing left... There's nothing

salvageable... There's a shell of a building," he said.

The home was not insured, and neighbor Glen Swanson of Maplewood Trail

launched an effort this week to enlist volunteers to help Ms Lavalette rebuild

her home. Those interested in helping in this effort should call Mr Swanson at

426-9927.

The residence formerly was a summer cottage which had been converted into a

full-time residence. It consisted of two structures on a slope connected by an

enclosed stairway. The house is at the end of a Elmwood Trail a narrow,

dead-end street in a hilly area.

Firefighters' efforts to extinguish the blaze were complicated by an arcing

live electrical line at the house.

Sandy Hook, Newtown Hook and Ladder, Hawleyville, Botsford and Southbury

firefighters went to the scene. An estimated 45 firefighters responded to the

fire. Southbury firefighters stood by in the Sandy Hook firehouse.

The Elmwood Trail blaze is the eighth serious house fire local firefighters

have responded to since late November.

"We went three years without a serious fire and then in six months we have at

least eight serious structure fires," Mr Lockwood said.

Of the eight fires, two were caused by careless smoking, three by

malfunctioning heating sources, one by a clothes dryer, one by a candle, and

one by wax being melted.