WILTON – The farmhouse on Weld Road caught Stacy Austin’s eye when she was 15. She would go up and peek in the windows, she said, hoping that someday the house would be hers.

When the John Blanchard family homestead came up for sale, Austin and her husband, Richard, bought it with the intent of restoring and living in it.

The family formerly of Farmington, now living at their camp in Industry, were three weeks away from moving into Stacy Austin’s dream home.

The couple and friends and family worked months to restore it.

Late Saturday, Austin watched the home and attached barn go up in flames, which broke her heart, she said.

“It just killed me to watch that place burn,” she said. “It was just heart wrenching. Our heart and soul has been in that house since we bought it. I loved that house. We put so much into it.”

About 50 firefighters from six departments worked to save what they could but it was too far gone, Austin said.

Industry Fire Chief Joe Paradis took her to the fire scene, she said. Her husband wasn’t home at the time and joined her there later.

“We weren’t in it,” she said. “Thank the Lord we were not in there.”

The couple has four children ranging in age from 2 to 14.

The fire is believed to have started in what would have been the baby’s room, she said.

The couple lost every hammer, saw and other tools they owned plus what family and friends owned or let them borrow. This is the first time the home, which was built in the early 1800s, has been out of the John Blanchard family’s hands, she said.

“It felt heartbreaking as I watched it burn,” she said. “I felt I was letting them down.”

The couple bought the farmhouse from Blanchard’s granddaughter, Austin said.

Austin said she’s heard so many stories about the Blanchards and the home.

“We found so many neat things in the house,” she said. “Now they’re all gone.”

Austin said Monday she was exhausted.

Most of the rubble and debris from the farmhouse and barn had been cleaned up Monday. A Dumpster was loaded to the top. A backhoe nearby sat idle just after noon.

A little smoke rose from some smoldering debris.

Initially, Austin said she and her husband didn’t want to rebuild. But now after talking it over, she said, the family has decided to rebuild on the 60 acres that has views of mountains in the distance.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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