Firefighter's response lessens damage of blaze
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: RICHARD BOURIE; FRED CONTRADA
WILLIAMSBURG, MA – A volunteer firefighter driving students home from school yesterday helped avert a disaster when he radioed in a report of a fire on Nash Hill Road, according to Fire Chief Roger Bisbee.
Pete Banister, who also drives a Williamsburg school bus, drove to the Williamsburg fire station, where he is a volunteer, to report the fire to the town’s dispatcher.
“Every day I drive by here there’s smoke (from wood stoves),” Banister told said. “There was a lot of smoke when I came by, venting through the end of the house, so I knew it was burning.”
After he delivered the students to their homes, Banister, a Chesterfield resident, returned to the scene to help put out the fire.
Flames visible
Firefighters arrived within minutes of Banister’s call at 3:07 p.m. to find flames racing up the rear wall of the two-story house on 25 Nash Hill Road, from the basement to the roof.
Owners Betty Rice, 74, and Milton Rice were at home in the wood frame house when the fire broke out, Bisbee said.
“They really saw the fire the same time (Banister) did,” said Bisbee. “But the fact that he reported it saved some time. There was the potential to have done a lot more damage than was done.”
According to Bisbee, the fire apparently started in the chimney when creosote from a woodstove ignited. The fire then spread to the wooden framing around the chimney, either through the chimney’s heat or through a crack, Bisbee said.
Fire damage reached the height of the building near the chimney, Bisbee said, adding that firefighters caused additional damage to the ceilings trying to contain the fire in the attic. He estimated the cost of the damage at $50,000.
Other departments pitch in
Two pumpers, a mini-pumper and a tanker truck from Williamsburg responded to the blaze. Tankers from Chesterfield, Goshen and Northampton also arrived at the scene, Bisbee said.
Betty Rice said the house was built by her uncle and she had lived there all her life. Her son, Raymond Rice, 56, of Conway, who was at the house helping her sort through possessions before the fire broke out, said he smelled smoke.
“When I went outside, I saw fire up by the top of the chimney,” he said. “I told her to get out as soon as she called the fire department.”
Raymond Rice said the heaviest damage occurred in a large upstairs family room. The entire top floor had been remodeled in recent years, he said.