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Local
| 4/21/2009 10:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Fire Destroys Family's Home
Blaze Started In Nearby Woods
LYNDON - A family's home and all its belongings were destroyed Monday afternoon when a forest fire near the old farmhouse quickly advanced and engulfed it within minutes shortly before 5 p.m.
The home, at 1453 Burrington Bridge Road, near the intersection with Town Farm Road, belonged to Brian and Nancy LaCoss, who were not home at the time of the fast-moving blaze.
Neighbors and onlookers, following the thick spiral of black smoke, clogged the roadway leading to the fire scene, making it difficult at times for fire trucks and emergency responders, including police and the Lyndonville Electric Department, to make it to the scene.
The road was eventually closed to traffic to help manage the scene as tankers from Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, Sheffield and Wheelock, and East and West Burke arrived to spray the fire - using a nearby brook to refill their tankers.
About 4:45 p.m., the call, which came in from Nancy LaCoss's sister, Sue Choquette, who was next door with LaCoss's grandchildren, first came in as a sighting of a brush fire in the woods.
Choquette, looking shocked and with her arms around two of her sister's grandsons, said her sister had been away in Burlington at another grandson's baseball game. She said her sister had been told about the tragedy and was returning.
"I saw the sparks in the woods and called 911," said Choquette, shaking her head, and walking away.
Firefighters continued to spray a 55-gallon propane tank on the side of the 2 1/2 -story old farm house, trying to prevent it from exploding, the main concern as they battled the fire.
Choquette was not sure how old the farmhouse was, but said her sister had lived there for many years.
Even after the fire caused the house to collapse - not even an hour into the blaze - smaller fires around the scene continued to cause concern. And with the winds continuing to blow, firefighters remained Monday evening to be sure all hot spots associated with the blaze were monitored.
Newark firefighter Dave Marsland said the only thing the firefighters could do was try to keep the propane tank from blowing. Marsland said all the water was being directed at the tank to try to avoid an explosion.
He said a fire earlier in the morning in Newark at a camper on Brook Road led to a man nearly having to go to the hospital, but Marsland said the man refused treatment, and there no one was injured.
"It's been so dry the last couple of weeks," said Marsland, who is also a wild land firefighter.
Lyndon State College student Mike Martell said he and a friend saw the billowing black smoke while en route to Burke and pulled off to check out the fire.
"It's really windy," he said, looking around as the fire whipped up.
Marsland said embers from a fire like the one at the LaCoss residence could go a long distance and cause fires far from the scene. So, the firefighters would continue until after dark to be sure the hot spots were extinguished.
A cause of the fire had not been determined at press time.
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