NEW BERLIN – South New Berlin’s Andrew Coles recalled the smell of what he thought was burning brush in the air when he headed for bed at around midnight last Thursday, but was awakened by the family’s dog a few hours later to find his kitchen ceiling on fire.
Andrew and his wife of 22 years, Mary, were getting ready for bed at just before midnight late Wednesday. Stepping outside of the family’s two story house located along Sheff Road to let his five dogs out before turning in, Andrew sniffed a strange smell in the air.
“There was this smell, not very strong, like smoldering brush or something and I thought maybe someone nearby was or had burned something,” said Andrew.
At around 3 a.m. Mary awoke to the persistent and excited licks of a two-year-old Shih-Tzu-Chihuahua mix named Yukon Jack.
“He just kept licking my face and I kept pushing him away,” said Mary.
“What do you want? I asked him and I was tired. I just figured he needed to go outside, so finally I got up to take him out.”
Mary, who wasn’t wearing her glasses, said she saw an eerie glowing light surrounding the light fixture in the kitchen.
“I went to get my glasses and asked my husband, ‘What is that?’” she said.
Andrew went to the kitchen and couldn’t believe what he was looking at, especially since the family had two working smoke alarms and a carbon monoxide detector installed inside the house.
“There around the light fixture was a ring of fire burning though the ceiling,” said Andrew.
The couple recalled the strange sight, describing a nearly perfect circle of fire about two feet in diameter around the light with the flames rolling back onto themselves.
“It was like looking at the bottom of a fire,” said Mary.
The fire had started in the light’s electrical fixture inside the ceiling and had spread slowly, surrounded by fire resistant insulation. The smoke rolled up through the other side of the kitchen’s ceiling into a upper floor closet area that resembled a small attic. The fumes then left the storage room through a small open window, never having crossed paths with any alarm, explained Andrew.
“Obviously that was one of the first things that crossed my mind was why didn’t the smoke alarms go off,” he said.
Andrew and Mary left the house with four of their dogs but couldn’t find Yukon Jack as the fire spread and smoke began filling the home.
Andrew ran next door to his neighbor’s house and called 911.
Mary ran back inside the house and found the dog scared and hiding. She suffered minor smoke inhalation and was later taken to Chenango Memorial Hospital as a precaution.
Within five minutes of making the emergency call the first South New Berlin Volunteer Firefighter arrived at his home in a civilian vehicle.
“At just about the time the first firefighters got there, we could hear the smoke alarms in the house starting to going off,” said Andrew. “And those guys did a great job both the South New Berlin and the New Berlin Fire Departments. They got here so fast I couldn’t believe it.”
Firefighters knocked down the fire quickly and isolated the burn damage to the kitchen ceiling and the above second floor area. However, smoke filled the house and the couple said their homeowner insurance agency had placed the cost of repair at over $50,000.
Also one of their dogs suffered severe trauma as a result of the fire and had to be euthanized shortly after the incident.
Crews stayed on the scene until about 7 a.m., recalled Andrew. The couple’s only child was not home at the time of the fire and the family has been staying with relatives in South Plymouth. “They’ve been great,” said Andrew.
“It’s one of those stories you hear about and think it’ll never happen to you,” he added.