Three die in fire
Two brothers, woman die in weekend blaze in Quaker Farms area
Karl Maseizik, 54, and his brother Chris, 53, and a friend were killed in a massive blaze that destroyed their Oxford home over the weekend. The third victim in the fire, a woman, has not been publicly identified by authorities pending notification of her family, neighbors said.
OXFORD – Longtime neighbors remembered two brothers as rambunctious but caring men after they and a friend were killed in a massive blaze that destroyed their Oxford home over the weekend.
Karl Maseizik, 54, and his brother Chris, 53, had grown up in the home on O’neill Road and were known as mechanics and tinkerers who would zip around the trails in the Quaker Farms area of Oxford and help their neighbors when they could, other O’neill Road residents said Monday.
The third victim in the fire, a woman, has not been publicly identified by authorities pending notification of her family, neighbors said.
Police would not release more information Monday and the Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting autopsies.
Emergency personnel arrived at the home just before midnight and found the home already fully engulfed in flames, state police said Sunday.
Neighbor Jim Hoyt, who has lived in the home across the street for 45 years, had been out that night and arrived home right behind the first police cruisers on the scene. As he took the sharp turn on O’neill Road a block away, the gigantic blaze was suddenly visible through the woods that surround many of the houses on the street.
“I can’t believe it’s affecting me so much,” Hoyt said. “I still find myself shaking. I can’t believe they’re gone.
“If I had been there five minutes earlier, was there something I could have done?” he said. “Probably not, but damn I would have tried.”
Neighbor Wade Brooks did try, but he could barely get within 20 yards of the home because the heat was so intense, the 20-year-old said outside his family’s home across the street.
He and his family had heard what they thought to be two booms, potentially the explosion of small propane tanks, and ran out to see the house on fire. As glass shattered, Wade Brooks tried to get near the house but couldn’t see anything but smoke inside and was repelled by the heat.
Karl and Chris Maseizik were both good with their hands, as technical mechanics
and tinkerers of their remote-controlled cars and all-terrain vehicles, neighbors said.
Their father, Fred, had the house built in 1970 when the neighborhood was first developing and raised them there with the Hoyts and Brooks’ across the street. They grew up to take over their dad’s duties helping plow out a few of the driveways in the neighborhood with their ATVs and were both known as jokers.
“They were good guys,” said April Brooks, Wade’s mother, who grew up knowing the “cool guys” on their block.
“They tried not to take life too seriously, so they weren’t jaded.”
Karl and Chris Maseizik are survived by their two sisters. Attempts to reach them Monday were unsuccessful.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation and state police declined to release more information Monday.