A fast moving fire Saturday night swept through a circa 1700s home on Great Road, spreading quickly to the barn and garage attached to the house, destroying all of the structures and everything inside.  Homeowner Malcolm FitzPatrick was attending a dinner at the Friendship Hall of First Parish Church next door when the fire, believed to have started near the kitchen area of the home, broke out.

Stow Fire Chief Mike McLaughlin said late Sunday, “We think the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, perhaps related to a heating coil wrap that was around some pipes beneath that floor.” The wrap holds a line that conducts a current to heat pipes when extreme temperatures could cause them to freeze. “It is regulated by a thermostat and goes on and off,” said McLaughlin, explaining that while the coils were warming the pipes, they also were heating up the old dried wood, potentially creating a spot for the fire to spark.

The fire engulfed the home just 90 minutes after FitzPatrick, the only occupant of the house, had left to attend the Church dinner.  “If it had happened a few hours later when he had been asleep upstairs, we may have had a very different situation here,” said Chief McLaughlin.

Police Sergeant Tim Lima discovered the fire while on routine patrol Saturday evening around 7:00pm. “I was driving along 117 and I saw some smoke and thought, wow, someone has a real good wood fire going.  I opened the window and said to myself, that’s not wood smell, that’s a house.  I turned around and went over there and ran up to the house and I could see faint flames.”

 Lima called the fire in to dispatch and minutes later the two Stow firefighters on duty, along with 16yr old apprentice firefighter Eric Benoit, arrived at the call with Engine 12. The pumper truck followed with a supply of water, two more men and others arriving in cars.

Lieutenant Mark Guerin went inside the home to see if FitzPatrick was there. “We first had to consider it a rescue situation,” he said Saturday night.   Within minutes of their arrival, the flames were visible and spreading, with smoke filling the house. “We couldn’t go any further,” he said, after attempting to explore the house. Minutes later, FitzPatrick arrived from the nearby church.

Assured that no one was inside, the firefighting strategy shifted, but was met by many obstacles. Engine 12, with only enough water to shoot a hose for a few minutes, quickly ran out of water. The Stow pumper that followed provided the needed supply, but the fire was much bigger than the local unit could handle. Mutual aid calls went out to 7 other towns, asking for tankers, pumpers and ladder trucks, along with water supplies trucked in from other sources.  “We thought we had it covered,” said Guerin of the arrival crew’s first impression of the scene, “but it moved really fast.”

With no public water supply or hydrant system in Stow, the only immediate source of water was frozen Minister’s Pond on Rt 117, requiring a hose line of about 600 feet from the water to the nearest Engine and much labor to drag the lines, break open the ice and operate a pump.

For nearly a half hour, the firefighters awaited water from a steady source. At one point, the barn fire raged so intensely that it threatened to reach Stow’s Engine 12 , parked in what had earlier been a safe spot. Without water to assist him, Eric Benoit pointed a fire extinguisher at flames that were advancing toward the town truck. The heat did melt off some lights and turned a fire hose into a mangled mess of material, but the truck itself was still functional.  

 By 7:30, over 50 firefighters were on the scene with over 20 pieces of firefighting equipment. The parking lot at Union Church was turned into a staging area for the continual stream of tanker and pumper trucks bringing in water from sources all over Stow, including the Elizabeth Brook at Brookside Ave, the pond behind St. Isidore’s and Minister’s Pond. “Without this parking lot, we would have had trucks up and down Great Road and lines pulled everywhere,” said Chief McLaughlin. Instead, the lot allowed for multiple water holding stations to receive the tanker deliveries.

From those stations, hoses pumped the water to a system controlled by Stow firefighter Sue Siewierski, which sent the steady stream to Engine 12 at the main attack point, and to ladder trucks fighting the fire from above.  The Stow Highway department spent the night sanding and salting the lot and breaking up the ice so that emergency personnel could maneuver through the area.

Unknown combustible materials proved to be a dangerous gamble for the firefighters. Acetylene tanks, propane tanks, paint and other combustibles made it impossible for firefighters to enter any of the garage or barn area. Windows exploded out of old cars parked in front of the buildings, while rubber tires on a tractor did the same. 

“It was a tough fire to fight under some very tough conditions,” said State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan of the effort put forth by Stow and the mutual aid companies from Acton, Boxborough, Bolton, Berlin, Harvard, Hudson and Maynard.  The fire was still smoldering as late as Monday morning and the site has since been bulldozed and prepped for full clean up.

FitzPatrick is presently staying with relatives and according to several sources in Stow, offers of help have been pouring in from fellow residents. “Malcolm was very touched by the support,” said Sergeant Lima on Sunday. “We have been with him most of the day and while he is heartbroken, he is overwhelmed by what he is hearing from the community.”

Offers of assistance and questions about helping can be directed to Kristie Oberlies at the Neighbor Brigade (978-897-4540 or nbofstow@yahoo.com).

Additional Fire Photos