Ansonia Fire Department Facebook
A fire rages on North Cliff Street late in the evening of Dec. 20, 2024.
ANSONIA – Authorities are continuing to investigate a fire on North Cliff Street that rendered a three-story house uninhabitable, the fire marshal said.
Fire Marshal Darrick Lundeen said it’s believed that the fire started on the third floor and spread from there. The house has been deemed unsafe for occupancy since the Dec. 20 fire. A cause has not been determined.
There were no fatalities, although the CT Post reported that 12 people were safely evacuated from the home. A GoFundMe has been posted to help with one former occupant’s living expenses.
The Valley Indy spoke with Breanna Brodrick — the organizer of the GoFundMe, a single mother who was displaced from the home alongside her 3‑year-old child. She said she was returning from the laundromat when she saw her home engulfed in flames.
“It was a lot of fire, a lot of flames. It was the biggest fire I’ve ever seen before,” she said.
She said the fire had heavily damaged all of the rooms on the third floor, including hers.
“You could see the sky through the roof. The roof had burned through the third floor,” she said.
Her dog, a one-year-old puppy named Bella, was killed by smoke inhalation, she said.
Brodrick said there was also extensive water damage throughout the first and second floors. She said there were about 11 people living in the home.
The fire erupted shortly after 9 p.m. Firefighters from Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, Shelton, and Orange battled the blaze for about three hours.
A video of the fire was posted to YouTube by FireGround Images. A gallery of photos was also posted here.
