Investigation into fire at pet boarding facility continues
WESTPORT — Investigators said they have narrowed down the area in a second-floor apartment over a local dog and cat boarding facility where a fire broke out Wednesday night.
Firefighters rescued some 50 dogs and cats from the facility, Townhouse for Dogs & Cats, on the Post Road East. Officials said during the fire, the residents of the apartment had to jump from the windows on the second floor to escape the fire, according to officials.
Now the town fire marshal says the pet boarding company may be able to reopen soon.
Westport Fire Marshal Nathaniel Gibbons said the area where investigators believe the fire began is an exterior porch or enclosed landing served by a stairwell on the west side of the building.
“We like that area a lot,” Gibbons said.
The fire is considered accidental, according to Gibbons, meaning no foul play is suspected.
Two pets belonging to the occupants of the second floor residence were killed in the fire. Gibbons said the family is very upset. “They lost everything,” he said. Losing the two pets in the fire has also been very traumatic to the family’s child.
The pet boarding company on the first floor only saw smoke and water damage, Gibbons said. A cleanup crew has already been working at the business, which may be able to reopen if an electrician can restore power.
“We had to pull the meter for the building obviously, de-power it,” Gibbons said. “The upstairs apartment is on a sub-panel, and I said to them ‘if you bring in an electrician... if he can confirm that upstairs is completely isolated, you can re-power downstairs.’”
“So long as that power shakes out as clean, I would OK them to re-occupy them downstairs,” he added.
Firefighters often have an electrical
crew cut the power to a structure during a fire, in order to minimize the risk to personnel working to put the blaze out.
The smoke damage, and the fact the business is used for animals, means the inside of the building needs to be cleaned, which was what the cleaning crew on scene Thursday was there to do.
“I was there yesterday, they had probably half-a-dozen people there cleaning, vacuuming water off the floors, running de-humidifiers,” Gibbons said.
Workers could be seen carrying out debris in black plastic garbage
bags Thursday morning and loading them into a box truck parked in front of the business.
Gibbons said the investigation into the fire remains ongoing, and they have yet to determine the cause of the fire. Right now the fire marshal’s office is reviewing building records and permits, as well as the licenses of anyone who may have worked on the building. The office is also waiting to see if insurance agencies become involved in the investigation and lend their resources.
“Our scene investigation’s pretty much done, we have an area of origin we’re pretty confident in,” he said. “But we don’t have a determination yet, and that may take a while.
First responders were dispatched to the scene at 1040 Post Road East around 11:43 p.m. Wednesday. Police arrived at the scene and reported fire coming from the building.
Firefighters arrived at the scene and attacked the blaze with two lines. They also cut into the building’s roof during the incident. A search of the building confirmed the residents of the second-story apartment had escaped, but firefighters said two dogs belonging to the family perished.
Fire officials said the family was treated at the scene by Westport paramedics, but did not need to be hospitalized.
The family, whose names have not been released, was alerted to the fire by an home fire alarm system that had recently been upgraded, Gibbons said in a statement released Thursday.