Fire Destroys Landmark Home

Wasserman Residence

At Medridge Farm

By Andrew Gorosko

An accidental fire destroyed the circa-1780 farmhouse home of State Representative Julia Wasserman on Walnut Tree Hill Road in Sandy Hook on Tuesday afternoon, in one of the worst residential fires in Newtown in the past decade.

Fighting the smoky blaze, which was reported at 3:24 pm, proved especially troublesome for firefighters, who repeatedly attacked the flames, as the fire continued to pop up in various sections of the two-story antique wood-frame structure at Medridge Farm at 113 Walnut Tree Hill Road. The site is about 100 yards north of Walnut Tree Hill Road’s intersection with Acorn Drive.

The home held a large collection of valuable antiques and fine art objects.

The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported two firefighters to Danbury Hospital for treatment of injuries. One firefighter experienced a combination of heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. The other suffered a knee injury. Several other firefighters received minor injuries, which did not require hospital transport.

During the course of the incident, ambulance staffers checked the vital signs of more than 50 firefighters at the scene on the hot, humid day, said Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead.

“It was a tough fire to fight…The guys worked their tails off. They were really getting beat,” he said.

It would repeatedly appear as if firefighters had the blaze under control, but then flames would pop up again somewhere else in the house, he said.

An estimated 100 firefighters were activated for the fire call, approximately 75 of whom went to the scene, Chief Halstead said.

Those responding included firefighters from Sandy Hook, Newtown Hook and Ladder, Botsford, Hawleyville, Dodgingtown, Southbury, Roxbury, Stevenson, Stepney, Bethel, Stony Hill, and Brookfield.

Because weather conditions were so hot and humid, firefighters, who wear a large amount of cumbersome apparel, could only work for brief periods. It was thus necessary to quickly rotate the personnel in fighting the blaze, Chief Halstead said.

Shifting winds caused dense smoke to travel out and up and away from the house in various directions, at times obscuring visibility on Walnut Tree Hill Road. Police closed a lengthy section of the street to through-traffic during the incident.

Firefighters were on the scene for seven hours, until 10:30 pm.

Police, who were positioned at the residence after the fire was put out, noticed that the fire was rekindling at 11:38 pm and summoned firefighters, who spent another two hours there extinguishing the smoldering wreckage .

At 6:45 am on May 12, police again noticed that the fire was rekindling, so they called firefighters who spent more than an hour there again putting out hot spots. 

A damage estimate on the house and its contents was not available. “It may be a total loss,” Chief Halstead said, adding that he expects the damage will result in a “large dollar loss.” He said he will discuss the matter with the property’s insurer.

Mrs Wasserman’s Loss

After being brought home by a State Capitol police officer, a dismayed Mrs Wasserman stood by with others near a barn on her property during the fire. Friends and town officials attempted to comfort her as firefighters battled the stubborn, smoky blaze.

“I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it,” she said later.

“When they called me in Hartford, I really felt the loss. It was like the earth shifted,” she said.

Mrs Wasserman was in Hartford for a special session of the state legislature.

“It really was Lou’s house. He loved the house. It was where he indulged his passion for collecting…We were here for 45 years.”

Mrs Wasserman’s late husband, Dr Louis Wasserman, was an internationally renowned authority on hematology, who died in 1999.

Mrs Wasserman said she is consulting with local builder Kim Danziger and with Chief Halstead about what, if any, part of the house could be salvaged. “I’m not sure I’m going to rebuild it just as it was,” she said.

As for the house’s contents, she said, “There’s little left.”

On Thursday morning, she said a few pieces of badly damaged furniture and a few other items may be able to be salvaged through restoration, but virtually everything else in the house was destroyed, including all her clothes except what she was wearing that day.

Much of the artwork and antiques are irreplaceable, she said, adding that she will miss most the personal mementoes of her life, including photos.

On Wednesday, however, a fire investigator picked up a shiny object in her bedroom — it was her wedding ring. Mrs Wasserman said she was overwhelmed and overjoyed at the chance discovery.

Mrs Wasserman said her priority now is to find a place stay that will accommodate her beloved dogs, which were unhurt in the fire. In the meantime, the state legislator is staying with friends in town.

Fire Origin

Chief Halstead said a worker employed by Mrs Wasserman was removing a five-gallon gasoline tank, which supplied an electrical generator in the home’s basement. In removing the tank, the worker accidentally and inadvertently spilled some gasoline in the basement.

The spilled gasoline then vaporized. The action of a propane-fired water heater in the basement later caused the gasoline vapors to ignite, starting the house fire, Chief Halstead said. The entire basement was consumed by fire. “Once it took off, it [fire] involved the whole basement,” he said.

It is unclear how much gasoline spilled, he said. That gasoline reportedly spilled about an hour before the fire occurred.

Chief Halstead is also the town’s fire marshal.

Four workers were at the house when the fire occurred. They reported the fire. Besides a worker employed by Mrs Wasserman, there were three house painters on the premises.

On arriving, firefighters encountered heavy smoke conditions, Chief Halstead said.

During a two-hour period, the fire generated dense black, brown, gray, and white smoke. Although it was a sunny day, the smoke was so heavy at times that there was virtually zero visibility on the nearby section of Walnut Tree Hill Road.

At one point, firefighters directed water jets from about six fire hoses onto the burning building. A three-acre farm pond served as the water source. Firefighters used a five-inch-diameter hose to channel 1,000 gallons of water per minute from the pond to the house.

It was estimated that firefighters used a quarter-million gallons of water on the fire, drawing down the level of the pond by about eight inches.

At one point, the water nozzle mounted on Newtown Hook and Ladder’s ladder truck shot an intense jet of water directly down into the house from high above.

The antique house’s “balloon-style” construction, which does not include firestops within the walls, allowed the fire to quickly spread from the basement, up through the building’s unprotected sidewalls and into its attic where the fire “mushroomed,” Chief Halstead said. The wood in such old houses is very dry and burns readily.

Of difficulties in fighting the blaze, Chief Halstead said, “We would get a handle on it [fire], and it would take off again.” The fire raced up a staircase in the home, spreading the blaze, he said.

Initially, firefighters entered the basement and the first story to fight the blaze. At one point, firefighters were on the second story, he said. But conditions grew so intense, with severe heat and heavy smoke, that they had to leave the building for their own safety, he said.

The house contained “tremendous fire volume,” he said. The burning house did not pose fire dangers to other nearby structures, he added.

The intensity of the firefighting effort, coupled with the heat and humidity of the day, saw many exhausted volunteers sitting on the lawn behind the house, drinking water and being checked by ambulance staffers.

Chief Halstead compared the fire at Medridge Farm to the June 1999 fire at the Hall residence on Huntingtown Road, and to the August 1997 fire at the Kahn residence on Irvin Lane. Both those antique houses received extensive damage in fires that proved very difficult to extinguish during hot, humid days. The cause of the Huntingtown Road fire has never been established. The Irvin Lane fire was accidentally caused by workmen.

Chief Halstead thanked the many volunteer fire companies that responded to the Medridge Farm fire. He also thanked various local businesses that provided food, water, ice, and various supplies for the firefighting effort.