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Landmark Home in Stoughton Damaged in Fire

3 comments

A FIRE IN A STOUGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS, VICTORIAN HOME on Tuesday afternoon caused some major damages to the house.  But thanks to the alertness of a neighbor, damages were partially limited and the 85-yr.-old resident was able to escape the flames safely.

stoughton a wickedlocal snyder

Enterprise / Snyder photo

The fire was first noticed at 3:45 pm Tuesday afternoon by Scott Schertz, a next-door neighbor who happened to be driving down the street toward his home when he saw flames breaking through the roof of the massive 2-½ story home.  Knowing that his neighbor was usually at home, he stopped his car, ran up to the front door and kicked it in.  The Stoughton Enterprise reports:

“There’s a fire! There’s a fire! You gotta get out!” yelled Schertz, going through every room in the three-story mansion.

The smoke hadn’t yet made it to the bottom floor, but he saw it coming down from upstairs.  “It was kind of eerie to see it roll down the stairwell,” he said. “It was like out of one of those fire movies.”

Jimmy Kourafas, the 85-year-old owner of the home, was on the ground level and didn’t believe Schertz at first.  He had just gotten home from visiting his daughter in Marlboro. He was checking the messages on his answering machine when Schertz ran through yelling.  Kourafas didn’t see any flames or smoke, but he didn’t waste any time leaving. It wasn’t until he got outside that he saw the rooftop blaze.

Read the full story of this neighborly assistance HERE.  The article also contains a good photo gallery of the incident.

WCVB-TV Ch. 8 Boston filed this raw video report from their helicopter:

The fire rapidly expanded to a 3-alarm response, primarily due to its size and that there were multiple roof levels involved.  Fire departments from about 10 communities responded to assist with the blaze.

Fire officials say that the fire damage was largely contained to part of the attic area and the front rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  However, there was extensive water damage to the interior contents and fixture, making the house uninhabitable for the time being.

The home that was built in 1890 has a strong historical significance to the city and was  the residence of one of Stoughton’s wealthiest families.  The Stoughton Enterprise tells about it HERE.

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Posted by on January 13, 2010 • Filed under: fire, Fires, Videos • Tagged: , ,
  • Zeb

    Here's a thought … how about dragging a big line up the interior, vent the roof and the top floor windows and extinguish the fire without the extensive water damage caused by staying outside and pouring thousands of gallons per minute through the holes that burned through the roof? Maybe the F.D. should have handed a big line and a rake to the civilian who took action and removed the occupants … it looks like he's the only man on the scene who had what it takes to actually enter a fire building. Disgraceful.

  • KK

    i think the Stoughton fire Dept did an EXCELLENT job saving my Uncle brother and sisters home…..if you knew anything about house fires you would have known that the house was unstable for the firefighters and they were actually pulled out of the house due to the collapse of the roof. They were trying to get a line inside but that happened so they had no choice but to hit it from the outside. Its people like you who speak our their rear and have no idea what they are talking about. Next time you choose to speak on anyhting get all of your facts straight and read up a little bit on fires and and the precations firefighters have to make for their OWN safety!!!

  • KK

    i think the Stoughton fire Dept did an EXCELLENT job saving my Uncle brother and sisters home…..if you knew anything about house fires you would have known that the house was unstable for the firefighters and they were actually pulled out of the house due to the collapse of the roof. They were trying to get a line inside but that happened so they had no choice but to hit it from the outside. Its people like you who speak our their rear and have no idea what they are talking about. Next time you choose to speak on anyhting get all of your facts straight and read up a little bit on fires and and the precations firefighters have to make for their OWN safety!!!