City woman, her pet, die in morning fire

WOONSOCKET - A woman and her pet dog both died after being pulled from a smoky, three-alarm fire at 30 Newbury Ave. that broke out just before dawn Monday.

The victim was identified as June M. Wilkinson, 58. She lived alone in the brown, two-story near Cliffe Avenue, except for the canine, her only companion, investigators said.

Wilkinson had owned the house for some time and had apparently continued to live there after the property lapsed into foreclosure in January, according to city records. The cause of her death is believed to have been smoke inhalation, but police say an autopsy is pending.

Responding to 911 calls, Woonsocket Fire epartment crews responded to the residence shortly before 7 a.m. and encountered heavy smoke in the attic after forcing their way into the residence, according to Fire Chief Paul Shatraw.

Firefighters smashed windows and doors to gain entry to the home, discovering the victim unconscious on the first floor. She was transported to Landmark Medical Center, where she later died, Shatraw said.

Despite conditions inside the residence that Shatraw described as treacherous, neighbors said they barely noticed any flames.

“You couldn’t see much for flames,” one neighbor said. “It was all smoke.”

But the intensity of the inferno quickly ramped up after firefighters went inside, said the chief.

“As soon as the victim was extricated, conditions deteriorated rapidly,” Shatraw told reporters during a briefing in front of the property. “All the men were called out of the building an an additional alarm was struck and we went into an exterior attack.”

Eventually, Shatraw said, a third alarm was struck.

After about minutes, he said, the fire was under control, with apparatus from neighboring fire departments in Lincoln, ellingham, Central Falls and Cumberland all pitching in. Two Woonsocket firefighters, perched at the precipice of an aerial ladder, were still tamping down hot spots on the roof after the flames were extinguished.

The fire reached every level of the house and broke through the roof near the chimney. Chief Deputy Asst. State Fire Marshal Michael Sweeney, who was leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, said he thought the house was a total loss.

Sweeney said the damage might hamper the ability of investigators to take a close look at the interior of the dwelling as the probe into the cause of the fire got under way yesterday morning. The fire, he said, burned holes through the floor between the basement and the first floor and between the first and second floors.

“There are some issues within the building where the floors are compromised,” said Sweeney. “It remains to be seen whether we’ll get in the building to determine the origin and cause.”

Newbury Street was closed off to traffic and the scene was cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape into the afternoon hours as the investigation into the cause of the fire continued. Deputy Police Chief Michael Lemoine said members of the Woonsocket Police Department were assisting firefighters in pinning down how and where the fire started. Earlier in the day, Shatraw stopped short of providing a firm ‘no’ when asked if foul play might have been a factor.

Neighbors and co-workers say Wilksinson was a private person who kept to herself and was seldom seen outside her house. They knew she worked at Travelers Transit in Woonsocket because of the company van that was parked in the driveway.

A co-worker at the Front Street company said Wilkinson had worked there as a driver for several years. Her job involved transporting adults with special needs from their homes to the locations where they were provided with supportive services.

She was a good worker, Wilkinson’s colleague said, though she kept to herself.

Despite having lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade, Wilkinson was a virtual stranger to her neighbors. One woman who asked not to be named said she never even knew what she looked like until she saw paramedics performing CPR on her yesterday morning.

The brown clapboard house with matching shutters and a weathered picket fence was 109 years old. Wilkinson bought 30 Newbury Ave. in 1996 and had previously been involved in a mortgage assistance program before Wells Fargo foreclosed on the property on Jan. 17, a clerk in the property records division at City Hall said.