All of Newtown's five volunteer fire companies, along with Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, responded to the scene of a stubborn and smoky structure fire that was reported at about 1:12 pm on Sunday, November 26, in a home at 2A Fir Tree Lane.video coverage on The Newtown Bee's Facebook page, and check here as well as the December 1, 2017 print edition of The Newtown Bee paper for further details.

Upon arrival volunteers firefighters located a wheelchair-bound resident outside and apparently safe, and proceeded to concentrate initial efforts on a lower level garage where the fire may have started.

As teams of firefighters doused the flames, others took to the roof to ventilate, while several headed inside wearing full oxygen packs to search and begin assessing the upper level interior.

Eversource emergency crews were contacted to cut power to the residence, but had not arrived on scene approximately an hour after the call for assistance, long after Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead deemed the incident under control and began releasing other local fire companies back to their stations.

As is the case on any fire of this size, dozens of responders representing all of Newtown's fire companies worked in concert to minimize the loss, although it appeared the residence was heavily damaged. Fire Marshal Richard Frampton and Deputy Fire Marshal Steve Murphy were both on hand inspecting the aftermath.

Traffic on adjacent Berkshire Road (Route 34) was backed up in both directions for quite some time as Fire Police permitted a few vehicles at a time to pass the scene. A detour was eventually set up for traffic traveling westbound on Berkshire Road, while eastbound motorists were allowed to slowly pass through the scene.

A plume of smoke from the fire was visible from the Fairfield Hills campus and the Walnut Tree Hill area west of Church Hill Road.

Public records show the split level home was constructed in 1983, and was occupied by its current owner Annemarie Brennan in 2009.

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