Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: CAITLIN ROTHER
CUMMINGTON, MA – An engaged couple was left homeless yesterday morning after a fire tore through their wood frame house, killing two puppies, nine newborn kittens and two of their three mother cats.
Four 10-week-old puppies, seven one-week-old kittens and one nursing mother cat survived the fire. Officials believe it started after an electric panel near a wood-burning furnace in the cellar began to spark.
“At least the little ones will be able to eat,” said David Boyer, 41, who had lived in the 1 1/2-story, century-old house on Nash Road since June with his fiancee, Sharon Fernet, 36.
“My girlfriend or somebody threw the box (of kittens) out the window; one of the neighbors took them in,” Boyer said yesterday afternoon from a friend’s house where he and Fernet are staying. Fernet, he added, lost among other things her stuffed animal collection.
The fire, which broke out shortly before 9 a.m., destroyed all but the skeleton of the house frame, including all of Boyer’s and Fernet’s belongings. Asked what remained, Boyer said, “Nothing at all.”
“All we got is what’s on our back,” he said, describing his emotional condition as “so much in shock . . . We’ve both had a good cry and I’m sure there’s more tears to come.”
The couple had rented the house since June from Ralph Page, who had grown up there and now lives in a housing complex for the elderly on Main Street. Boyer and Fernet have lived in town for four years.
“There were a lot of memories that went up in smoke today,” Boyer said, adding that Page is “pretty upset . . . right now he just needs some time alone.”
Boyer, who was working at Edgehill Dairy when he learned of the fire, spoke for Fernet who said she was not up to talking with reporters.
Fernet was washing laundry, while babysitting 3-year-old Michael Horton Jr. when the fire broke out.
Fernet got the child out of the house and then saved what animals she could.
Cummington Fire Lt. Jack Horton, the first fire official on the scene, and Michael Horton’s grandfather, arrived to see the cellar in flames.
The fire already had burned a hole through the living room floor and spread to the kitchen.
Horton said about 30 firefighters responded, assisted by 11 tanker and pumper trucks from Cummington, Plainfield, Goshen and Williamsburg, according to the Amherst fire dispatcher on duty. Part-time volunteers serve Fire Departments in all four towns.
“It was like a big oven because it had aluminum siding and galvanized steel roofing, and then a double layer of shingle under the roof,” Horton said. He added that Williamsburg firefighters brought in air tanks, necessary to fight the smoke and steam the cold air forced into the firefighters’ faces.
Goshen firefighters, he said, laid a supply line to draw water from the Westfield River. Mary Snyders of the Northampton Red Cross also responded.
Horton said the fire had a head start on the firefighters, but was under control within two hours. Firefighters stayed at the scene until almost 3 p.m., wetting down the remains.