Official: Hamden home ‘uninhabitable’ after fire

HAMDEN — Town fire officials are reminding residents to turn off space heaters when unattended after a fire Sunday afternoon left a resident displaced from his home.

The home’s resident was not there when the fire began, according to officials. Red Cross officials confirmed over the weekend they are helping one adult following the fire.

Hamden firefighters were dispatched to the single story home on Smith Drive around 2:37 p.m. after neighbors called to report the fire. Firefighters arrived minutes later and reported “heavy fire” from the rear bedroom window, the fire marshal’s office said in a statement. The blaze had also spread out from the bedroom into the hallway.

“Firefighters were able to bring the fire quickly under control and began overhaul operations,” the statement said.

But the fire resulted in significant smoke damage “throughout the structure,” the fire marshal’s office said, leaving it “uninhabitable.”

The male homeowner is staying with family, and the Red Cross responded to assist them.

The fire marshal’s office said an investigation into the fire determined a space heater had been left on in the rear bedroom, which “ignited nearby combustibles.”

“The Hamden Fire Marshal’s Office would like to remind residents to turn off space heaters when no one is present in the room,” the office said. “Space heaters should also be kept three feet away from furniture, draperies, and other combustible items.”

Connecticut fire agencies issued similar warnings around space heaters in the wake of a deadly fire in an apartment building in the Bronx that killed 17, many of them children. Officials said in that fire, a space heater malfunctioned in an apartment, and smoke was able to spread through the building after the apartment’s door failed to close.