Hilltown Family Loses Home in Blaze

Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)

By SEAN REAGAN Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG, MA – A fire that started around a wood stove quickly consumed a three-story home on Nash Hill Road on Saturday, displacing an elderly couple and their disabled son. The family’s home was uninsured.

According to another son, Tobias Rice of Goshen, his father, Everett Milton Rice, who will celebrate his 90th birthday on Christmas, fell asleep and woke up at approximately 9 p.m. to a small fire burning around the area of his woodstove.

The elder Rice, a former volunteer firefighter who still chops his own wood and maintains a garden, tried to extinguish the flames. When he was unable to, he crossed the street to a neighbor’s house and called the Fire Department.

Fire Chief Donald Lawton said that by the time firefighters arrived, there were flames rising 80 feet above the structure.

”That one had such a big start on us, there was nothing to we could do to save it,” said Lawton.

Firefighters from five towns including Northampton, Westhampton, Goshen, Chesterfield and Ashfield responded to the blaze. Lawton said firefighters remained on the scene until Sunday afternoon.

There were no injuries. Rice’s wife, Hannah Rice, who is 86, and their disabled son were staying with family in Conway at the time of the fire.

Tobias Rice said his parents’ house was not insured. They have spent the last two days, he said, scrambling to find clothing, replace medications and trying to restore a semblance of order to their lives.

They are currently staying with family in the area.

”They lost everything,” said Tobias Rice. ”It’s just such a terrible blow to them, especially right around the holidays. They don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

The Rice family lost their home in the late 1980s to fire, as well. At that time, though that house was also uninsured, they were able to sell some land they owned in order to rebuild.

Lawton said the Williamsburg Fire Department has responded to calls at the Rice place ”several times” in recent years, but this was the first time they were unable to save the structure.

Tobias Rice said his parents, who recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, are scared about the future. ”They need all the help they can get right now,” he said. ”They’re not having an easy time with it.”

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