I received a call late last night from my good friend and I could tell from her voice (it was breaking) that something was horribly wrong. Her house burned down. Worse, while her son was home alone. They had a pet die. They have lost everything and since they were renters, they are homeless now. She has gone through so much and has been trying so hard the last few years to improve their situations and it seems like every time that something goes right in her life, something terrible has to happen soon after to knock her back down. She just found out she got a new job two days ago. She was so hopeful and excited, now this. I feel horrible for her. I wanted to reach through the phone and give her a big hug. I would tell her to move her, if I thought she would be happy but her mother is ill and she needs to be by her now. I just hate to see someone I care about hurting so very much.
WOONSOCKET — A beloved family pet was rescued from a fast-moving fire Thursday on Summer Street in the North End. No people were reported injured.
WOONSOCKET — Firefighters battled for more than two hours with a stubborn fire at a two-family 2 1/2 -story house near the Massachusetts state line yesterday evening.
Three children and a host of animals, including two dogs, a cat, and at least 10 rabbits, were in and around the house at 261 Summer St. when the fire started just before 5 p.m. in the first-floor living room, according to Fire Chief Kenneth A. Finlay and homeowner Anna Sacoto.
All, except for a bird, made it out safely, said Sacoto.
Firefighters retrieved a cat from the burning house and treated it for smoke inhalation using a special resuscitator for animals. “We thought that the cat wasn’t going to make it,” said Finlay.
More than 60 firefighters from Woonsocket and Cumberland Hill fire departments worked to put out the blaze, which Finlay said was accelerated by wind gusts. The house was about 50 percent destroyed, he said.
“The temperature had been mild and the windows had been thrown open,” Finlay said. “The fire had all the air that it needed to grow.”
Originally built in 1900, according to city records, the large house’s layout also helped spread the fire, he said, allowing the fire to burn between walls and jump rapidly to the top floors.
“Every section of wall was like a separate chimney,” Finlay said. “The fire went horizontal. It went to spots that we could not go to quick enough.”
National Grid was called to cut power to the house when power lines near the front yard began sagging from the heat, Finlay said.
“It was a labor-intensive fire,” said Finlay.
The fire charred the entire front of the dwelling, including exterior porches on two floors, the roof and parts of the sides of the house, sending black smoke into the neighborhood. The police cordoned off the road between Winter and Rebekah streets.
The Binette family, who live at 275 Summer St., said they left their house upon hearing the neighboring house’s smoke detectors sounding.
They stepped outside to the sight of flames shooting out of a window nearest their home, which sustained minor damage from the fire.
Sacoto, the homeowner, said she was on her way home from work when her 13-year-old daughter, Monica, called to tell her that the house was burning.
Monica had been on the second floor with a friend from school, Nicole, according to Sacoto. An 11-year-old boy, Connor Kovacich, was on the first floor. Monica called her mother upon leaving the house.
“I’m very happy that my daughter got out. I worry about my animals, but if I lost my daughter, I don’t know that I would do,” Sacoto said.
Connor and his mother, Donna Kovacich, moved into the first-floor apartment last month, said Sacoto. Connor is usually watched by a babysitter while his mother is away, she said. Kovacich and her son were brought to the police station for questioning last night.
Finlay would not confirm the names of those in the house at the time of the fire or speculate as to a cause. Investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s Office were on the scene as the fire was brought under control at about 7:15 p.m.
Sacoto said she purchased the house four years ago and had recently renovated it, purchasing new appliances and re-siding it. She and her daughter will be staying with family in Uxbridge, Mass. The house had fire insurance.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Sacoto. “I don’t have a house. I don’t have anything.”
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Firefighters were dispatched to a three-story, two family tenement house with an address of 261 and 263 Summer St. minutes before 5 p.m.
The house’s owner, 46 year old Anna Sacoto, arrived home from work early that evening only to be met by her 13 year old daughter, Monica, outside. Sacoto’s daughter was home with a friend at the time the fire broke.
“I heard a kid screaming downstairs,” said Monica Sacoto. “He was screaming that he wanted his mother and there was a fire. Then, my dog started barking. I grabbed the little dog and ran outside.”
Monica left the tenement with her mixed terrier, named Baby, while her Jack Russell terrier named Duncan was already outside. A 10-year-old boy, who was home alone on the first floor, also managed to escape from the house to safety.
“I was upstairs and I heard a boy yelling from outside,” said Sacoto’s friend, 13-year-old Nicole Davison. “I looked for the cat and couldn’t find her. I then ran outside.”
“I never thought this would happen, never,” Sacoto said. A lot of animals were inside and outside the house at the time of the blaze. A bird on the first floor and a goldfish on the second are believed to have perished in the fire.
A teary-eyed Anna Sacoto feared for the safety of her cat, which was believed to have still been inside the building at first.
“I hope she’s hiding in the back of the house,” she said. “I wish I just could have saved her.”
The tiger striped cat, named Pumpkin, was in fact later located in the back of the house by firefighters.
The three-year old feline was given oxygen by firefighters at the scene and later handed over to its very relieved owners around 6 p.m., an hour after its disappearance.
“They found the cat, they found the cat,” said Sacoto. “I can’t believe it. They found her. I’m so glad the cat was found.”
“They gave her oxygen apparently,” said Domenic DiBattista, 12, cousin of Monica Sacoto.
“We did get a cat out and we did resuscitate it,” said Woonsocket Fire Chief Kenneth A. Finlay.
Eight rabbits, which were also outside in cages in the backyard at the time, were carried to a neighbor’s yard.
Ten-year-old Caitlin Brackett, a fifth-grader at Kevin K. Coleman Elementary School, was home next door with her uncle and brother when she heard screaming.
“At first, I heard this kid screaming and told my uncle,” Brackett said. “I heard an alarm. I looked at our fire alarm and it wasn’t going off. I looked outside and the porch (next door) was on fire. I told my uncle and then ran outside.”
Brackett’s uncle, J.P. Saumur, immediately called 9-1-1 and ran outside with Brackett’s four-year-old brother, William.
“There were a lot of flames coming from the first floor porch,” Saumur said. “I saw two girls running out of the house. They had a carrier of sorts with them. They came by me screaming.”
Firefighters continued to hose down small bursts of flames around 7 p.m. at the two-family dwelling. They also kept a sharp watch on the tenement’s roof.
“We’re putting holes in the roof to open it up,” said the city’s fire chief. “Because this was house with a balloon frame construction, there’s a lot of places the fire can hide. We’re trying to find it, but right now it’s moving faster than we are.”
According to the fire chief, the blaze moved fast throughout the tenement due to the available air circulating throughout.
“The fire had a lot of air to grow,” Finlay said. “If it had been a little colder or warmer and the windows were closed, the fire probably wouldn’t have been so fast. All of the windows were open.”
While the fire completely consumed the front façade of the building, the estimate of damage is unknown at this time. The fire’s origin and cause also remain under investigation.
“We’ve heard a lot of stories (about the fire) and we’re not ruling any of them out,” Finlay said.
Hundreds of spectators lined the street behind police barricades to watch firefighters working to control the blaze.
“When you witness something like this, you realize how important our firefighters are and at the same time, it’s devastating for the families,” said state Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who lives nearby. “The most important thing is that everyone is safe.”
Personnel from all of the city’s fire five stations responded to the Summer Street fire, as well as Woonsocket police.
The American Red Cross was on scene Thursday to assist the two families.
“We will give them whatever they need right now,” said Steve Pechie, a representative of the American Red Cross.
Monica Sacoto will begin eighth grade next week at Woonsocket Middle School. All of her possessions, including clothes and supplies for school, are believed to have been destroyed.
Anna Sacoto, an employee of a Providence law firm, purchased the building nearly four years ago. She is also the mother of a 17-year-old, who was away on vacation Thursday.
The Sacoto’s resided in the tenement’s second and third floors. The first floor tenant for the past six months, Donna Kovacich, was not home at the time of the fire.
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Child home alone sparks 3-alarm fire
Updated: Aug 29, 2008 07:50 AM
Firefighters say the fire on Summer Street started on the first floor, where an 11-year-old boy was home alone.
WOONSOCKET, R.I. (WPRI) - Investigators hope to know later Friday morning what caused a three-alarm house fire in Woonsocket Thursday.
Firefighters say the fire on Summer Street started on the first floor, where an 11-year-old boy was home alone.
Everyone inside made it out ok, but the house is a total loss. A family cat was also rescued from the burning home.
There are reports a candle started the fire, but investigators have not confirmed that.
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