Fido’s fine
A late-afternoon house fire in Bellingham could have been all the more tragic if not for the rescue of the family dog.
BELLINGHMAM — Lori and Ken Nicholson were called away from a relative’s wake Monday afternoon by news that their home at 101 Cross Street was on fire.
But luckily for the Nicholsons, members of the Bellingham Fire Department were already on scene and doing what needed to be done to save the family from an even greater disaster.
Everyone, including their two sons, were safe, but their pets, Ken Nicholson said later at the scene, were still inside as they headed home.
“We were literally losing our minds,” he said while recalling the rush to get to the scene and find out what was happening there. “I kept thinking, get the dog out, get the dog out. And they did,” Nicholson said.
Koda was apparently located in the living room area where he was trying to keep his head under some clothing, his owner explained.
Bellingham Fire Department Lt. Neil Coakley brought Koda out of the building and the town’s firefighters gave the pet some oxygen to help him recover. By the time his family saw him on Cross Street in a crowd of emergency personnel, Koda was actively greeting people and straining at the piece of fire department webbing the firefighters used as a temporary hand leash.
The family’s home is located just up from the town’s Silver Lake Beach recreation area and the Arcand Bridge over the Peters River as it leaves the lake.
Nicholson credited the local department with getting the 4:30 p.m. fire under control and saving his family’s home from more extensive damage.
“It seems like they got here pretty quickly,” he said.
Lori Nicholson said the family hadn’t been able to get inside the home after arriving while firefighters were still working inside, but also credited emergency personnel with a fast response.
“One of our friends called the fire department after they spotted smoke coming from the house,” she said. The neighbor, a member of the Cook family just down the road from the Nicholsons’ home, called the fire department and got emergency crews right to the scene, she noted.
Fire Chief Steven Gentile said the responding units could see smoke coming from under the eaves of the roof near the kitchen area of the home when they pulled up.
“We heard there could be people inside so we did search but didn’t find anyone,” Gentile said. Firefighters then received a call that everyone was safe and continued to knock down the fire burning in the kitchen.
“They made a great stop,” Gentile said while noting that the fire had been creeping along the ceiling of the living space when firefighters first entered the dwelling.
No one was hurt in the effort to knock down the fire, and Gentile said it was also good to know that firefighters were able to save the family’s dog and other pets, including a cage of hamsters. Nicholson said he heard the family’s two cats were also okay but had not yet seen them outside the family’s home.
The family had relatives living in the neighborhood and would be staying with them while repairs were made to their home, according to the chief.
The fire appeared to be confined to kitchen area, but its cause remained unknown Monday evening, he noted. An investigation was being conducted, and Gentile said he expected the cause to be kitchen related. Power was to be cut to the dwelling while the clean up was carried out and the home secured.
Gentile said the house at 101 Cross St. was a part of local history in that the town’s first police chief, Euclide Fleuette, had once owned it.
The town’s department, now housed in a new facility at 30 Blackstone St., actually operated out of Fleuette’s house for a time when he took on the job and it also served as the department’s jail in those early days, Gentile said.
Bellingham sent all of its fire units to Cross Street while making the stop on Monday. Also helping the town department were units from Norfolk, Hopedale, Plainville, Franklin and Milford.