BURRILLVILLE – Two incidents kept members of the Pascoag Fire Department busy on Thursday, March 12, and although crews were able to quickly extinguish both blazes, a family was displaced from one home with heavy smoke damage.
The first fire call came in around 4:30 p.m. for a home on East Wallum Lake Road, according to PFD Chief Michael Dexter. The blaze had started in the chimney of the house, and the homeowner climbed on the roof to try to extinguish it.
“He needed assistance getting down,” Dexter said.
The incident led officials to issue a public safety announcement reminding residents to leave dangerous situations to trained emergency personnel.
“Attempting to intervene before emergency crews arrive can unintentionally increase the risk of injury and may complicate operations,” the department noted on social media.
The more serious call for a fire in the basement of a home on Reservoir Road came in around 10 p.m. The family was alerted by smoke detectors and able to get out safely.
“That was a significant fire in the sense of damage to the house,” Dexter said. “They didn’t have a lot of fire, but they had a lot of heat and smoke.”
Firefighters extinguished that blaze within 20 minutes, accessing the area through a walkout basement door.
Dexter noted that it could have been worse. A plastic water pipe in the basement had burst helping to slow the blaze.
“It kept it a little more in control,” said Dexter. “They’re very lucky.”
Still, the incident caused significant fire damage to the basement and first floor joists, as well as smoke and water damage, leaving the home uninhabitable.
Dexter said the state fire marshal investigated the cause, noting that it may have been electrical, and has ruled the incident “accidental/ unknown.”
