A home on Stiles Road is a complete loss and a family is displaced after their house caught on fire Saturday night, according to the Southbury Volunteer Fire Department.
Firetrucks and emergency personnel responded to the residential structure fire at 207 Stiles Road, with mutual aid coming in from several neighboring towns to also battle a brush fire.
Nobody was injured during the fire, but the homeowners say three of their cats are unaccounted for.
Assistant Chief Robert Barnes of the Southbury Volunteer Fire Department said the warm, dry, and windy conditions played a factor into how the fire spread.
“Upon arrival we had heavy fire in the back of the house,” Barnes told The Record on Saturday night. “With the windy conditions we had, it was conducive to spreading very rapidly. The conditions worsened from there before the first units arrived on scene. The subsequent house fire led to a brush fire which began to spread, and we had to mitigate that particular issue along with getting the house under control.
“But given the amount of wind we had, it was very difficult to carry out both tasks. Ultimately, at this point the house is a total loss.”
The homeowners, Kim and Tom Simonalle, said they were home when they saw smoke billowing in from the ceiling.
“It was very quick, it seemed like just a matter of minutes,” Tom Simonalle said. “I saw the smoke out front and we got up and looked out back and it was just completely smoke. The windows turned red and I could see the cracks in the windows, and then they burst. I could see smoke coming in from where the ceiling was. It was just smoke billowing in.”
Tom said he ran back inside the house to rescue all three of their dogs
“We got back outside and the next thing we knew, we heard the fire trucks coming. When I got down the road, I looked back and all I could see were flames,” he said.
Several local fire departments assisted during Saturday night’s fire, including Oxford, Woodbury, Middlebury, Sandy Hook, and Roxbury.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation as of Sunday morning.
A GoFundMe was created by a family member and has raised nearly $10,000.
The Southbury Record 