One person dead in Plainfield condo fire
PLAINFIELD - Local and state authorities are working to determine the cause and origin of a Monday Plainfield condominium fire where one person was found dead.
Central Village Fire Co. firefighters were dispatched at 2:52 a.m. to a four-family complex at 107, 109, 111 and 113 Sachem Drive for a reported structure fire. After the fire was extinguished at 5:45 a.m., a body was found in the wreckage, Deputy Fire Marshal Travis Irons said. The man’s identity has not yet been released.
Irons said his department, along with Plainfield police and members of the state police’s Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit, were investigating the cause of the blaze which left roughly half the structure either damaged or destroyed.
Deputy Police Chief William Wolfburg said three occupants of the dwelling escaped the fire and another was away in Florida. Though given consent to search the fire scene, Wolfburg Monday morning said authorities were waiting to obtain a search warrant for the premises, a common step in such investigations.
By 8 a.m., several neighbors stood by a line of police tape draped around the yard of the charred property. Tina Maurice, who lives two condos down from the fire scene, said she had just spoken to the victim on Sunday afternoon.
“He’d been plowing the complex for the last 18 years and I talked to him at 3 p.m.,” she said. “And he was dead 12 hours later."
Maurice said she was awoken early Monday by her dog barking.
“He never barks at night and when I looked out my window I could see the house fully engulfed and a line of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances up the street,” she said.
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Irons said the sub-zero temperatures on Monday didn’t hamper firefighters’ suppression efforts but did make battling the blaze challenging.
“There were no frozen hydrants or lines, but the kind of rapid icing you see in those conditions makes slips-and-falls more of a concern.”
In addition to the Central Village department, mutual aid from several neighboring agencies responded to the fire, including Plainfield, Moosup, Atwood Hose and Danielson, as well as American Legion Ambulance.
Monday’s fire came ignited a day after 19 people – including nine children – died in a Bronx apartment fire and days after 12 individuals perished in a Philadelphia row house blaze.
John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Plainfield, CT, house fire claims life of one person
