Contributed photo
The blaze in Seymour Sunday night.
UPDATE: Sunday night’s fire in Seymour was so intense heavy equipment was called to the scene to knock down parts of the house so firefighters could extinguish the blaze.
The floor collapsed during the fire, making it too dangerous for firefighters to get in the house, Seymour Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis said.
The official cause of the fire is unknown — and may remain classified as undetermined because of the extent of the damage. However, Willis said it appears to have been accidental in nature.
No major injuries were reported, Willis said.
The fire department was sent to 131 Bungay Road at 10:22 p.m. Sunday. Units on scene found the home’s occupants — a couple in their 60s and their 7‑year-old granddaughter — outside at a neighbor’s house.
“They had made it out,” Willis said.
Meanwhile, flames engulfed the house.
The female resident reported being awoken by the sound of “popping or an explosion,” then got up to see the hallway of the ranch-style house filling with smoke.
She got her family up and out, Willis said.
Fire companies from Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany and Oxford either responded to the scene or covered other calls in town.
The home was a complete loss, Willis said.
There were smoke detectors in the house, but it’s unclear whether they sounded. The damage was too great, and the family wasn’t sure if they heard the alarm.
It was a chaotic situation.
Willis said the popping noise or “explosion” could have been glass breaking, or car tires popping. There were two cars in a garage. Both were destroyed.
The family stayed with relatives overnight. The Red Cross was contacted to lend assistance.
That area of Seymour does not have a public water supply, which means no hydrants. A bevy of water tanker trucks were called to the scene.
Willis estimated firefighters had 15,000 gallons of water at the scene at one point.
“It still wasn’t enough,” he said.
The Bungay Road fire was Seymour’s second house fire in four days.
Firefighters were sent to a blaze at a single-family house on Tomlinson Road Dec. 7. There were no injuries reported after that fire.
Willis said that fire was accidental, most likely caused by a candle falling over and igniting a couch next to a picture window in the front of the home.
Original story follows:
The Seymour fire marshal’s office is investigating the cause and origin of a fire that badly damaged a house on Bungay Road.
No injuries were reported.
Click here to read a story from WTNH.
NBC Connecticut described the home as “destroyed.”
Seymour firefighters were sent to the area of 139 Bungay Road at 10:33 p.m. Sunday.
Units on scene described a working structure fire, according to social media reports.
Firefighters from all over the Valley responded as mutual aid and to cover fire stations for other calls.
Sunday’s fire was the fifth in the lower Valley since Nov. 28, including a fatal fire at a Shelton mobile home community Dec. 1. There were two fires at roughly the same time in Derby Dec. 6.
Sunday’s house fire was the second in Seymour in four days. Firefighters were sent to a blaze at a single-family house on Tomlinson Road Dec. 7. There were no injuries reported after that fire.
Willis said Seymour also responded in recent days to a fire at the town’s transfer station, and to a sink fire within a garage.
