UPDATE: Ansonia Fire Marshal Ray Tingley said the house fire on Clifton Avenue Tuesday morning was caused by an electrical short in the home’s attic.
No one was injured in the fire, which was reported just before 11 a.m. Tuesday. The two-family home had about five people inside when the fire broke out, but they were all able to evacuate before firefighters arrived on scene.
Tingley said the wire in the attic that shorted out were feeding the second floor. He estimated the building sustained about $15,000 to $20,000 in damage from the fire. Tingley said the landlord of the building was arranging for the families to stay someplace else tonight because the home is uninhabitable right now.
The following was the article posted earlier today:
Jason Blakeman was hanging out in his Clifton Avenue apartment Tuesday morning when he heard a zapping noise coming from the kitchen.
That noise alerted Blakeman and the four other people in the two-family residence at 20 Clifton St. to a fire that was burning in the building’s attic.
“I went into the kitchen to see what it could be,” Blakeman said, “and it looked like the wall and ceiling started to separate. I could see fire in the crack.”
So Blakeman rushed up to the attic, which was above his second-floor apartment, and saw that the attic was engulfed in flames.
Blakeman was able to alert the other people in the home about the fire, and everyone made it out of the house. When police and firefighters arrived on scene, flames were shooting out of the back portion of the second story, said Ansonia Fire Chief Michael Eheman.
It took about two to three minutes to put down the fire, Eheman said. The call came in as an electrical fire, but the fire marshal was still investigating the cause at noon Tuesday.
About 30 volunteer firefighters responded, Eheman said. No injuries were reported.
