FARMINGTON — Jonathan Cummings feels reborn . . . like a new person.

“A great big weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” he said Monday.

Struggling to remove the charred debris from the Maple Avenue home he and his brother Benjamin owned has been an overwhelming task. The house burned in December.

Last weekend, help came in the form of volunteers from a New Vineyard church.

“I’m so grateful for them. I don’t know what I would do without them,” Cummings said. “I can’t believe what they have done in two days. It’s hard to put in words. Without them I’d still be lost,” he said.

Selectmen have worked with the brothers trying to get the burned shell razed and debris removed from the property.

The house at 185 Maple Ave, located next to the back entrance to the Farmington Fairgrounds, prompted board members to agree they would like to see the work completed before the Farmington Fair opens.

The board voted to uphold an agreement between the town and brothers setting a Sept. 1 deadline for the cleanup or the town would secure a court date to seek contracting the work and putting a lien on the property to pay for it.

Although a lot of work had been done by Sept. 1, there was still a large pile of debris that needed to be removed. Jonathan told the board he had been injured working on the structure and was out of work, but rain and the cost of removal had stopped progress.

A Bailey Hill farmer who had experienced loss from fire himself had previously stopped to talk with Benjamin, Jonathan said, but he didn’t realize the selectmen’s desire to ensure the property was secure by fair week.

After the recent decision to pursue legal action, Konrad Bailey brought an excavator and nearly 20 to 25 volunteers from the Open Bible Baptist Church to the property to begin filling the large Dumpster, Jonathan said. There’s still a small pile out back that they intend to help finish clearing, he added.

“Most of these people I’ve never seen and probably never will see again,” he said. “But Konrad told Benjamin that he knew what we were going through.”

Feeling totally overwhelmed with life Friday, Jonathan said the church crew wasn’t the only good Samaritan that lifted his spirits. The battery on his lawn mower hasn’t been working.

“Some guy stopped and mowed by lawn. I never saw him before,” he said.

The flooring left from the house is still solid and the family hopes eventually to rebuild that portion of the house. Now living in a small one-bedroom apartment in the barn, the brothers are also looking after an older aunt who has the bedroom for her privacy, he said. They want to eventually complete rebuilding their aunt’s room first.

“It was just nice to come up the road this morning and see very little mess left,” he said. “I’m just so grateful for them.”

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Volunteers from the Open Bible Baptist Church in New Vineyard helped clean debris from a house on Maple Avenue in Farmington owned by Jonathan and Benjamin Cummings.

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