Crime & Safety

Fire Displaces Sandy Hook Family of Seven

No one was injured in the fire, but the house was destroyed.


A fire that ripped through a home on Algonquin Trail late Saturday night has displaced three adults and four children, according to the Red Cross.

The fire started late Saturday night and reportedly spread in a matter of minutes.

"It went through like anything," Newtown Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said. "[The house] definitely was destroyed."

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Today, the smell of burnt wood remained in the air in the lakeside Sandy Hook neighborhood. It's a wooded area with windy, narrow roads, and many of the houses, including the one that caught fire, sit on a steep slope down to the Housatonic River.

According to Vision Appraisal's online database, the house is owned by Brooks A. Mather.

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The Red Cross has provided immediate financial assistance for emergency food and clothing. Fortunately, said an organization spokesman, Paul Shipman, the family had a place to stay.

An official fire report won't be ready for some time, but Halstead said neighbors told him the blaze was burning intensely in the living room and the house's windows blew out. Newtown's fire departments responded within minutes, he said, with tankers eventually coming from fire stations across town.

During the blaze, the Southbury Fire Department came with a pumper and tanker to provide cover in case of additional emergencies, Halstead said.


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