Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Fire Guts Home, Starts in Garage
Colonial Drive home appears to be a total loss; state fire marshal is investigating cause of blaze.
Barrington Fire Chief Gerald Bessette said the fire that destroyed the Colonial Drive in Barrington today, Jan. 10, appears to have started in the garage.
“One of my off-duty fire lieutenants (Lt. Ed Owens) was the first to arrive,” Bessette said. “He saw smoke from across the river in Warren. He determined where the house was and drove over here.”
Owens found three cars in the driveway and the doors to the house unlocked, the fire chief said. Not a good sign.
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“He found a fire in the garage and called 911,” said Bessette. “But he found no one in the house.”
The state fire marshal’s office is investigating the fire, Bessette said. An investigator was on the scene at around 3 pm.
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The house appeared to be fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived, the chief said. He pulled everyone out of the house soon after they arrived. It was simply too dangerous inside the wooden frame house.
Bessette said he was told that three people lived in the house, a father, mother and an adult daughter. He did not know their names, and was not even sure the father was aware that the house was destroyed at mid-afternoon.
Click here to see the original story on the fire.
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