Fire destroys Norwalk home, family escapes unharmed

By Nancy Guenther Chapman

NORWALK, Conn. – A family of four escaped injury with a pet but their Norwalk home was gutted by fire early Saturday morning, Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Shay said. Three firefighters fell through a stairway but were uninjured, Shay said.

Paramedics on scene and a neighbor said a person had suffered a minor laceration to the elbow. Shay did not know anything about that.

The first floor of the home at 9 Talmadge Place was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived after being called for a report of a bathroom fire at about 12:03 a.m., Shay said. The family had gotten out, with their pet, a small dog.

The fire quickly spread to the second floor. Firefighters had to fight it from outside as the stairway to the second floor had been destroyed, he said. The firefighters fell through the stairs into the basement, he said.

Residents of the home huddled in the front yard of the home two houses down as firefighters swarmed the burning home, climbing onto a burned out front porch and into a second story window. The woman whose home was burning sat on the front steps of her neighbor’s home, holding the dog, while a man stood next to a teenager.

The family from the home next to the burning building was also waiting and watching, as firefighters had told them to evacuate. Neighbors wrapped them in blankets; the woman had come out barefoot and had been given socks.

Shay said it took about half an hour to get the fire under control. The house would be posted unfit for occupancy, he said.

Four engines and two trucks went to the scene, Shay said, lining the neighboring roads, causing drivers on Soundview Avenue to wonder what was going on. Fire crews from Westport and New Canaan covered Norwalk as the fire was put out.