By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
UNITY, N.H. — Multiple agencies responded to a fire in Unity on Tuesday, and thanks to the quick response by the Claremont Fire Department, the blaze was mostly contained to the detached garage where it originated, and the house was saved.
According to Claremont Fire Chief Jim Chamberlain, Mutual Aid responded to 16 Strout Road for a reported garage fire at 12:49 p.m. They were on scene in only six minutes, and upon arrival, found a fully involved fire in a 24-foot by 24-foot garage.
“Our companies immediately deployed a two-and-a-half-inch hand line and started extinguishment of the garage,” Chamberlain said. “That’s when the house located 10 feet from the garage started showing signs of in involvement.”
Chamberlain said the windows cracked because of the heat and the side of the house started to blister and steam.
“Our hand lines went directly from the garage to the house, which prevented the fire from entering the residence,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said this is important because if Claremont had not responded and executed the extinguishment, that house would have probably been either destroyed or suffered extensive damage.
“We had the bulk of the fire knocked down and when Unity got there, we already established a water supply,” Chamberlain said. “When they got there, they could plug into our water supply because there isn’t a hydrant system out there.”
Claremont Fire showed up with a tanker with 2,000 gallons of water flowing approximately 300 gallons per minute out of the line. They were able to mitigate this situation and, most importantly, enter the house.
“My best determination is that if it was another minute that house would have been involved,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain responded with his command vehicle as they knew they would be first at the scene and also brought Engine 4 and the call company.
Unity Fire Chief Tim Davis said the fire was mostly extinguished in about 20 minutes, but they spent time at the scene checking for hot spots and making sure no embers traveled and caused other fires due to the dry conditions.
“Everything was so dry we were very concerned about something floating to another spot in the yard and creating a spot fire,” Davis said.
Davis has spoken with the state Fire Marshal’s office and the cause is undetermined due to the extent of the damage, but it is not deemed suspicious in nature.
The homeowner was home at the time of the fire, but Davis said there were no injuries reported to residents or firefighters. Davis said nobody was displaced from the fire and the home was saved thanks to the quick work of the firefighters at the scene.
“The house had very minimal damage to the exterior, but the house itself is still livable, once they got power back,” Davis said. “The only issue was that the power ran from the garage. The contents of the house were fine. Just a little exterior damage.”
Responding to the fire were fire departments from Claremont, Unity, Lempster, Goshen, Newport and Charlestown. Acworth Fire Department covered the Unity Fire Station.
Chamberlain said this shows how the response of his full-time department can help surrounding communities. He has a standard of getting to any spot in Claremont within five minutes, and to get over to Unity in six minutes was commendable.
“This was extremely efficient,” Chamberlain said.
