Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: JACQUELINE WALSH
WORTHINGTON, MA – Firefighters were able to save a man’s Model A car yesterday morning, but could not prevent his 113 Sam Hill Road home from burning to the ground.
Chief Richard F. Granger said that flames were issuing from the roof of the home of Peter Bates, 70, by the time firefighters arrived after 6:30 a.m.
“It was a total loss before we got there,” he said.
The house, worth about $90,000, is not insured, Granger said.
The Fire Department has created a fund to help Bates, but clothing in men’s size large is needed.
Granger said a wood stove fire ignited the chimney and then spread to the rest of the home.
Bates grabbed a cat on the way out, and all his other cats survived, the chief said. Granger was not sure how many other cats were in the house.
Firefighters were able to save the garage, which is 10 feet from the house.
But the bulk of Bates’s collection of banjos, fiddles and guitars is gone. Granger said firefighters did recover one guitar and a fiddle that might be salvageable. Both were in cases.
They were the only items in the house that are left, he said.
“He lost everything,” said the chief. “All his clothes – everything.”
Bates could not be reached for comment.
Fire departments from Worthington, Huntington, Goshen, Chesterfield, Windsor and Cummington fought the blaze. Thirty firefighters responded, but Granger said he could have used more because the cold and ice wearied them.
Bates lived in the two-bedroom, single-story house for 22 years, the chief said.
Smoke detectors awakened Bates. At that point, the house was full of smoke, and the fire was near the wood stove in the living room and kitchen area, Granger said.
“He basically got out with a pair of pants, a shirt and his sneakers,” he said.
Bates ran to the home of his neighbors, Robin and Ronald Sampson, and the Fire Department was called from there.
Bates was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton and checked for smoke inhalation.
The fire chief said it is important that wood stove users clean their chimneys twice a year and make sure they are lined.
Last March, fire burned a 58 East Windsor Road home. It was caused by a heater switched on accidentally in the garage.
That happened three days after about 200 police officers, firefighters, and residents conducted a successful search for four children, ranging in age from three to 12, who got lost in the woods.