Published February 15, 2006 in the Rutland Herald
No one injured in morning blaze
By BRENDAN McKENNA Herald Staff
Three city residents were lucky to escape injury in an early morning fire on Emmett Avenue Tuesday, according to city firefighters.
Deputy Chief Francis Robillard said city firefighters were called to the blaze just after 4 a.m.
Deputy Chief Francis Cioffi, who was monitoring the controlled burn of a propane leak at the General Electric plant on Columbian Avenue, actually made it to Emmett Avenue before the trucks from the fire station, Robillard said.
It was Cioffi who then sounded the general alarm, Robillard added.
The fire, which was largely contained to the front of the one-story building, was relatively easy for firefighters to attack, Robillard said, but the people who were at home were lucky to escape.
"The three occupants of the house all escaped, but we were lucky there was not a fatality," he said. "The people got out just in time. There were two smoke detectors in the house, one in the basement level one on the main level and neither was in operational condition. There were no batteries in them."
Robillard added that if the house had not been build on a slope, allowing the basement level direct escape routes, the person who was there at the time would have been in serious trouble.
"On the lower level, they didn't have to come up. If they had they wouldn't have made it," Robillard said. "The stairway was cut off by the fire."
In spite of the near-tragic turn of events, Robillard said the damage to the building and residents' possessions was fairly minimal.
"It's salvageable," he said. "The fire was concentrated in the front right quadrant of the house and attic area, but it's repairable.
"As far as clothing and things like that, stored in the bedrooms, they probably didn't lose any. The bedrooms were not damaged except by water," he added.
But in the living room of the house, where Robillard said the blaze was ignited by a space heater setting a cabinet on fire, the damage was more extensive.
"The things you'd find in the living room, TV, stereo, those are all gone," he said.
He added that the one cat in the home was accounted for.
The people living in the house were renting it from Loralyn Woodard, who firefighters reached Tuesday morning in Portland, Maine. She arrived in Rutland Tuesday to survey the damage and Robillard said the building was insured.
He added that the Red Cross is helping the occupants with housing.
Contact Brendan McKenna at brendan.mckenna@rutlandherald.com.
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