Suspicious Plainfield Blaze Leaves Family of 9 Homeless

Union-News (Springfield, MA)

Author: JANICE BEETLE SCAIFE

PLAINFIELD, MA – Residents are expressing sympathy for the financially troubled family whose three-story house, destined for the auction block on Aug. 21, was destroyed by a fire yesterday that has been termed suspicious.

“I feel sorry for the kids; I guess for the whole family,” Iris Martin said of Mitchell and Alice Kane and their seven children, ages 1 to 17.

The family was not at home when the fire broke out about 1:30 a.m.

Martin founded a children’s play group here that donated gifts to the Kane children just before Christmas when residents learned the couple was unemployed and facing homelessness.

Martin said she was “shocked” to hear of the fire, adding that she knew the Kanes were still suffering from financial troubles. “I guess most people in town,” she added, “knew that. I think (their problems) just probably worsened.”

Selectmen Chairman Sandra J. Morann said, “I think it’s terrible any time anybody has a fire. It’s a disaster for the family.”

Last Christmas, the Kanes were inundated with offers of help from local residents and businesses in Agawam and East Longmeadow who pledged food and money for oil. The pledges came after residents read reports that the family could not afford to buy fuel to heat their home.

At that time, the Kanes, both of whom are carpenters, were facing foreclosure, and they attributed their financial problems to debilitating injuries that made it impossible for them to find work.

The early-morning blaze left the Kanes homeless and leveled the East Main Street saltbox home they had designed and built themselves, with help from neighbors, friends and businesses as far away as East Longmeadow.

The home, and an attached apartment that was also destroyed, were vacant at the time of the blaze.

Jay Bowman, a state police trooper and a representative of the state fire marshal, said yesterday, “We’re deeming (the fire) very suspicious now. However, we’re remaining just short of arson.”

Bowman said the fire is being termed suspicious because investigation yesterday showed that the fire started in the center of the home rather than on the outside, adding that the early hour of the blaze and “the fact that nobody was supposed to be there,” are suspicious.

Bowman said he is meeting today with the Kanes, who have been in Boston since Saturday afternoon, to get a better idea of where rooms and electrical fixtures in the home were located. That information, he said, will enable him to determine the cause of the fire.

Robert W. Phillips, vice president of the loan department at United Savings Bank in Greenfield, said yesterday that his institution joined in foreclosure procedures at least a month ago after they were initiated by Associates Financial Services of America.

Phillips said his bank holds one mortgage on the home, while the financing agency holds a second, and the home was scheduled for auction Aug. 21.

Phillips said he doubted whether the Kanes had homeowner’s insurance, but that the bank probably had insurance on the home to protect its investment. He indicated that he will meet with Bowman tomorrow morning to review the Kanes’ mortgage file.

Capt. Charles Waterhouse of the Fire Department said yesterday that the Kane family was not expected back from Boston until last night.

Waterhouse said the couple had been contacted by Mitchell Kane’s father.

A neighbor who lives about a half-mile away from the Kanes, he noted, reported the blaze about 1:30 a.m. yesterday.

He said fire departments in Ashfield, Cummington and Goshen were called in and 50 firefighters spent nearly six hours battling the blaze.

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