Rock Ridge Road—

Accidental Fire Destroys

­Two Vehicles And Shed

By Andrew Gorosko

All five local volunteer fire companies responded to an fire early Wednesday morning on Rock Ridge Road in Dodgingtown that destroyed two motor vehicles and their contents, plus a storage shed and its contents at a residential property, fire officials said.

The fire companies responded to the Conroy residence at 16 Rock Ridge Road, near that street’s intersection with Robin Hill Road, following a 5:48 am call for help. There were no injuries in the incident. Three people were sleeping in the home at the property when the fire started.

A damage estimate was not available. The property is insured.

Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said that the fire destroyed a Lincoln Navigator SUV and its contents, and a Subaru station wagon and its contents. Both vehicles were parked near the shed, which also was destroyed, as well as its contents.

The shed was positioned adjacent to the Colonial-style single-family house, which received very minor external damage and remains habitable, Mr Halstead said. The heat generated by the fire melted an outdoor sensor for a home weather station that was attached to the house. 

Mr Halstead said that some type of electrical equipment malfunction likely caused the fire to start in the front end of Lincoln, after which it spread to the shed, and then spread to the Subaru.

The fire initially was reported by a passerby, after which a resident of the home also reported the blaze, he said.

Mr Halstead said that if the vehicle that accidentally caught fire had been parked closer to the house, the house could have ignited.

Dodgingtown Fire Chief Mark White, who was incident commander, said firefighters quickly knocked down the blaze using about 4,000 gallons of water.

Approximately 30 firefighters went to the scene, he said. They used two hose lines to put out the blaze, he added. The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps stood by in the event that it was needed, he said.

Both vehicles and the nearby shed were fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived, Chief White said.

“They did a real good job of knocking down the main part of the fire,” he said of firefighters’ efforts to quickly put out the flames to prevent the fire from spreading to the adjacent house. He said the fire was under control within 15 minutes.

When the fire started, Nicky Conroy and her sons Michael 23, and Brian, 22, were at home sleeping, Ms Conroy said Thursday.

The family’s pet dogs started some intense barking in response to the fire, Ms Conroy said. The dogs barked as they had never barked before, she added.

A passerby initially placed an emergency call reporting the fire, Ms Conroy said, after which one of her sons also reported the fire, she said.

“It was a shock and it was scary, “ Ms Conroy said. “We were very lucky,” she said, adding that the fire could have been worse.

The family is calculating the property losses for submission of an insurance claim for damages, she said.