By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CHARLESTOWN, N.H. — A Charlestown man remains hospitalized with burns to his arms and legs from an accidental fire that broke out in his garage that he had been using as a workshop.
According to Assistant Fire Chief Shawn O’Hearne, the homeowner of 124 Happy Acres Drive appears to have tripped over something at his work station and spilled a flammable liquid on the floor. This caught a spark and O’Hearne said, “the rest is history.”
“He is using it as a workshop and they’ve been remodeling the garage for the past year or so,” O’Hearne said. “They had their motorcycles and stuff like that in there. Not sure if they had the wood from the siding in there, but it has been used as a workshop for work around the house.”
O’Hearne spoke to the victim’s wife who said he was hospitalized in Boston for burns. He was originally taken to Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, and then transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. On Sunday, Dartmouth-Hitchcock was going to ship him down via ambulance, but it was unavailable. The homeowner ended up getting a ride down to the hospital through a private vehicle. O’Hearne said on Thursday that he was still hospitalized, as far as he knew.
On Saturday at 12:45 p.m., the detached garage at 124 Happy Acres Drive was destroyed in a two-alarm fire. Charlestown Fire Department led the charge, and the Claremont Fire Department and North Walpole Fire Department were also at the scene to assist. Crews worked to knock down, contain and overhaul the fire, with crews there for about two hours and 15 minutes, O’Hearne said.
“Once we got the tanker shuttles set up there, we didn’t have a problem with water,” he said. “It is a non-hydrant district up there, so basically setting up tanker shuttles to fill a porter tank and pump water into the first engine.”
While the garage was a total loss, the home on the property remained intact aside from melted vinyl siding. The home was about 30 feet away.
The garage is the former home of convicted murderer James R. Robarge, who killed his wife, Kelly, in June 2013 on the day she filed for divorce. He is incarcerated in the N.H. State Prison for Men in Concord on a life sentence.
