THOMAS CAYWOOD
Telegram & Gazette

SPENCER

A Maple Street family of four and a foreign exchange student from Norway who lives with them were displaced by a three-alarm fire that destroyed the inside of their 110-year-old home yesterday morning.

A neighbor called in the blaze at 4 Maple St. about 10:30 a.m., initially reporting that one member of the family, Nancy J. Richards, might have been at home at the time, said Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons.

Police Officer David R. Allen was working an Election Day traffic detail less than a block away in front of Town Hall, a polling place.

Officer Allen managed to get into the house through a second-floor rear sliding-glass door as choking smoke began to pour out the windows, authorities said.

Chief Parsons pulled up soon after in his Fire Department SUV and grabbed a portable fire extinguisher to join in the search. The two men raced through the house as the heavy flames took hold and spread from the basement to the first-floor living room.

It turned out that Ms. Richards in fact was at work in Oxford, and the teenage children were all safely at school. But the family's 2-year-old lhasa apso, Lilly, and an older tabby cat named Frisky both died in the blaze, said owner Anthony P. Richards.

Mr. Richards, who had soot smudged across his cheek after salvaging hunting bows, files and a few other items from the charred house, said yesterday afternoon he didn't yet know where his family would spend the night.

"I haven't even thought of that yet. I can barely remember my name at this point," Mr. Richards said, looking dazed.

A heating contractor, Mr. Richards was on a job in Worcester when the neighbor called him to tell him his house was on fire. Chief Parsons said Red Cross officials would work with the family to put them up in a hotel if necessary.

The chief said the fire ignited in the basement and appeared to have been caused by a construction staple that pierced a 220-volt electrical wire. Mr. Richards had been installing molding in the house recently, Chief Parsons said.

While the exterior of the house and roof were largely undamaged save for broken glass, melted vinyl siding and scorched wood around the front windows, much of the inside of the home was severely damaged by fire and smoke and would not be habitable without major repairs, he said.

Firefighters from Spencer, Paxton, Leicester, East Brookfield and Brookfield quickly put out the flames after arriving in force soon after the chief, he said.

The two-story home was built in 1900 and has an assessed value of $139,200, according to town records

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November 3, 2010