Pets perish in Buckfield house fire

By Peter McGuire

BUCKFIELD — Firefighters from seven towns spent hours Thursday night battling a fire that destroyed a two-story home on Paris Hill Road

The fire was reported around 9:30 p.m. at 362 Paris Hill Road. Crews arriving at the scene found an attached garage fully engulfed in flames that were rapidly spreading to the main house.

No one was injured in the fire, but it destroyed the single-family home owned by Catherine Hunt and took the lives of two dogs and a couple of cats, according to the homeowner’s sister, Laura Parks, also of Buckfield.

Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were on site to inspect the scene Friday morning. They determined the fire was accidental, caused by one of the two wood stoves used to heat the house, Buckfield fire Chief Tim Brooks said.

For the first hour of the fire, responding fire departments frantically searched for Hunt’s son, Joseph, who was reported to be in the house. They found out later he had left to get supper before the fire started. Hunt was in New Hampshire, visiting another son, Christopher, who was in the area from Pennsylvania for the holidays.

Firefighters came from Buckfield, Norway, Paris, Hebron, Turner, Sumner and Canton. According to Brooks, firefighters were on scene until 3 a.m., then returned when the blaze rekindled in a wood pile. Crews finally returned to the station at about 4:30 a.m., he said.

Staff Photographer Amber Waterman contributed to this report.