Sherman house fire blamed on defective fireplace
SHERMAN — Firefighters from several towns responded to a residential fire on Hemlock Point Road early Thursday — the cause of which was found to be what they deemed a poorly constructed fireplace.
The call came in as a residential fire alarm activation around 4:25 a.m. Fire Marshal Dave Lathrop said occupants of the 1,293square-foot lakeside residence were woken by the sound of smoke and heat detectors.
Responding firefighters found smoke and fire at the scene and requested mutual aid from New Fairfield, New Milford and Kent.
Lathrop said heavy fire was in the area of a furnace, located directly below a fireplace on a separate floor.
“What we found during our investigation was the face of the fireplace where the fire brick is — where you build your fire in — had cracked and was not properly constructed,” he said.
Lathrop said there was no concrete slab under the fire brick and it sat “right on the subfloor underneath.”
“When it cracked, the heating from the fire over a period of time broke the concrete, and the fire spread to the subfloor and floor joists above the boiler room below,” he said.
Lathrop said the fire was quickly knocked down, but accessing the home was a challenge due to the property’s long, unplowed driveway.
“It was very icy for us to get our apparatus down it,” he said.
Lathrop said it’s important for residents, especially those in lakeside communities, to clear their driveways after a snowstorm.