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Crime & Safety

Fire Heavily Damages Vacant House on Middle Turnpike East

Assistant Fire Chief David Billings said that the house is "uninhabitable."

A fire at a vacant house at 805 Middle Turnpike East caused significant damage to the building and injuries to two firefighters, according to Assistant Fire Chief David Billings.

Billings said the two firefighters were sent to the hospital with minor heat and overexertion injuries.

Neighbors reported that the 1.5-story home was on fire at approximately 4:30 p.m. By the time fire trucks had arrived, Billings said the fire had traveled from the back porch into the first floor of the home, with flames visible from the front of the house.

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While Manchester firefighters were able to put out the blaze by 5:15 p.m., Billings said that firefighters, assisted by East Hartford and Manchester's 8th Utilities District volunteer firefighters, struggled to put out hotspots and had to overhaul the house for more than one hour.

"It was a very extensive overhaul. We were chasing the fire because the house is so old," Billings said.

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Co-owner of the house Carol St. Germain, a Manchester resident, said that the house was built in the 1920s. She said that she and her three siblings have owned the uninhabited home since their father passed away two years ago.

"We have all of our most treasured and valuable things in there," St. Germain said, explaining that while the house was mostly cleared out, family heirlooms such as photographs and her mother's wedding dress were stored there.

"The pictures you can never get back," she said. "Now we don't have any of it."

Billings said that most of the first floor was damaged. The fire spread to the upper story of the home, as well.

According to Billings, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reffered to the address of the home as 840 Middle Turnpike East.

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