Early Morning Fire Guts Manchester House

Manchester fire personnel had their hands full early Saturday with a blaze at 39 Litchfield St.

A passer-by called the department to report the fire at the unoccupied home at 1:43 a.m. The first unit arrived four minutes later, according to a fire release. The department, along with mutual aid from East Hartford and the Manchester Eighth District, had the fire under control by 2:12 a.m. and had cleared the scene by 5:41 a.m., according to the release.

Thomas W. Rohde, who owns the single-family, 1.5-story house but does not stay there often, was at the property on Friday and did not notice anything out of the ordinary, according to fire personnel and neighbors.

Although the cause of the fire remains under investigation, a report on the fire indicates that several electric space heaters were operating inside the structure and that there could have been an electrical circuit overload. The interior fire was slow burning and intensified when it reached a new oxygen supply near the front door, according to the release.

When the first unit arrived, emergency personnel saw fire coming from the front door and heavy smoke throughout the first floor of the house. After attacking the fire from the exterior, personnel determined it was too dangerous to enter the house from the front because of the weakened floor conditions. Instead, firefighters forced the door open on the north side of the house to enter the dwelling.

Once inside, the discovered four deceased cats; two others were alive and removed from the structure. 

Smoke detectors were in the house and operating. There is extensive fire and heat damage to the first floor and the town’s building official has deemed it to be uninhabitable.