No Major Injuries Reported After Apartment House Fire In Ansonia

ANSONIA — Several people were displaced and one firefighter was taken to the hospital after a fire at a multi-family house at 60 Jewett St. Thursday.

The firefighter, from the Shelton Fire Department, suffered a heat-related illness. He was taken to get checked out at Griffin Hospital by Ansonia Rescue Medical Services.

The fire was reported around 2 p.m. The people living there were able to get out without any reported injuries. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were displaced, but the building appeared to hold three apartments on three floors, and is zoned as a three-family dwelling, according to property records.

Ansonia Fire Marshal Darrick Lundeen is investigating.

The video below shows footage from a Ring camera in the area (article continues after the video):

There were some 75 firefighters and EMS personnel on scene.

An early video (posted at the top) from the fire shows heavy flames coming from the area of a second-floor porch.

“It extended to a third floor porch and obviously got inside the apartments. It went up a stairwell,” Ansonia Fire Department Chief Daniel Mudry said.

The house was built in 1945 and featured balloon-frame construction, a building type that can allow flames to spread rapidly up a structure and into a roof. The type of construction on residential houses ended in the late 1940s, but is common in older houses in the Valley.

“This is balloon-frame, but I think they caught it before it really had a chance to get up into the walls,” Mudry said. The second and third floors were badly damaged. The houses on the block are close together. The siding melted on a neighboring house.

It was about 83 degrees with 45 percent humidity at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Mudry said the heat was a big safety concern. Multiple fire departments and EMS crews were called to the scene to prevent heat-related injuries and exhaustion.

In addition to Ansonia firefighters and ARMS, firefighters from Derby, Orange, Oxford, Seymour,and Shelton responded to the scene, with Woodbridge providing backup to Ansonia in case more calls came in. Seymour EMS was on scene as well.

The Valley Red Cross responded, and could be seen checking on the tenants and to determine if hotel vouchers were needed. A building inspector was also summoned to the scene, as was a crew from United Illuminating to temporarily shut off power in the area.

“I had UI cut the grid because there was an electrical hazard right out of the gate. It burnt the service off a house, so I had them cut the grid so no one would get hurt,” Mudry said.