DIXFIELD – Fire destroyed an East Dixfield couple’s home Sunday morning.

David and Roxanne Swett escaped uninjured from the burning building at 931 Route 2 at 7:45 a.m. and contacted emergency responders, according to East Dixfield Fire Chief Randy Hall. The modified 1 story farmhouse, estimated to be at least 100 years old, was uninsured, Hall said. The Swetts are staying with relatives.

The Swetts are the grandparents of a Wilton toddler who died in November after a stair fall. A Wilton man has been charged with manslaughter in that case.

According to state fire investigator Sgt. Ken Grimes, the East Dixfield fire was accidental.

“It was caused by a malfunctioning electrical system in the front living room,” Grimes said at the scene.

He said that David Swett, 53, had been trying to fix problems with the system to prevent a fire. Swett, who was refurbishing the house, had also placed new siding on most of the outside walls.

The Swetts’ 911 call to Franklin County dispatchers in Farmington scrambled firefighters from Chesterville, Dixfield, East Dixfield, Jay, Livermore Falls, Temple and Wilton to the scene.

The house is opposite the unmanned East Dixfield fire station.

“When we arrived, there was heavy fire coming out the front window and front door,” Hall said. He and 11 East Dixfield firefighters arrived within two minutes.

Pumpers and tankers from all eight departments shuttled water to the scene from the closest hydrant, located 3 miles away on Route 17 at the old G.H. Bass Shoe plant in North Jay, Hall said.

Fire quickly spread from where it started in the east end of the house to the west end under a metal roof along the roof line in the attic, Grimes said.

“A power line to the house excluded firefighters from getting to two-thirds of the house,” which is why the fire was able to spread, Grimes said.

At 8:30 a.m., dense black and gray smoke towered above and enveloped the house as flames extended through the roof from one end of the building to the other.

Firefighters had to trudge through deep snow behind it to reach the burning backside.

A Central Maine Power Co. lineman arrived at about 8:45 a.m. and cut electricity to the house as flames erupted out an upper floor window below him.

Hall said firefighters were forced to attack the fire from the outside because they couldn’t get at it from above due to the metal roof, which also held heat inside.

As several firetrucks and crews assembled outside, Wilton and Dixfield police and Oxford County Sheriff’s Sgt. Timothy Holland diverted Route 2 traffic around the scene on Route 17 and More Acres Road for more than five hours.

The Swetts’ 17-month-old grandson Matteo Hanson died in the emergency room at Franklin Memorial Hospital after falling down a flight of stairs at his mother, Brandy Swett’s apartment in Wilton, in Nov. 29, 2008.

Brandy Swett is the couple’s daughter. On Dec. 27, her boyfriend, David Cook, 25, of Wilton was arrested by state police and charged with manslaughter.