People who heat with wood need to pay particular attention to disposing the ashes. That was the message from Westbrook firefighters after they extinguished a blaze at a home on Methodist Road last Thursday that was reportedly caused by the improper discarding of wood-stove ashes.
Westbrook Fire Chief Gary Littlefield said that at around 2:40 p.m. firefighters responded to three separate emergency calls to dispatchers and found the home of Christine Pednault ablaze.
“The whole place was billowing smoke,” he said.
Firefighters discovered heavy fire and smoke in the basement family room and were able to extinguish the fire with a concentrated effort in about 20 minutes. Littlefield said the home’s basement suffered significant damage from the fire, although the rest of the structure – a single-family, ranch-style home – was relatively unharmed.
“Overall, (the homeowners) were lucky,” he said.
No one was home at the time of the fire, said Littlefield, but firefighters rescued a dog and a cat. Neither the dog nor cat was injured, he said, although a firefighter sustained a half-inch-deep bite from the cat during the rescue. The wound was treated and bandaged, and the firefighter received a tetanus shot.
Littlefield said the fire began in a bag of wood-stove ashes that was left just outside the basement, and it eventually worked its way inside the home. Littlefield said that, after being disposed, ashes can take as long as a week to cool down completely.
“What people need to do with ashes is only put them into a metal, covered bucket and keep them at least 20 feet away from the house,” he said.
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