PHILLIPS – A family and their four dogs escaped injury Wednesday after a fire gutted their home on Wheeler Hill Road and destroyed all their belongings. They had no fire insurance.
The house that belonged to Ringo Pillsbury and his wife and teenage daughter was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, firefighter Ann Hudson said Wednesday.
The teenager ran out of the house to a neighbor to call 911 to report the fire at about 6:30 a.m., she said. Her parents were also able to get out safely, Hudson said.
“They lost all of their belongings,” she said.
The cause is under investigation.
Twenty-one firefighters from Phillips, Salem and Strong responded but had some difficulty trying to access the icy dirt road off Route 142. The ice also made it difficult for firefighters walking around, she said.
Franklin County Emergency Management Director Tim Hardy notified the United Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, which provided the family with food and clothing.
The family is staying with Pillsbury’s wife’s mother, Elizabeth Cushman, Hudson said. She said she didn’t know the name of the wife and daughter.
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