| POUND RIDGE, N.Y. – Firefighters arrived in the nick of time to save a family residence at 184 Barnegat Road in Pound Ridge after a two-car garage just inches away caught fire late Wednesday night.
"We got there at just the right time, otherwise it could have been ugly," said Pound Ridge Fire Chief Steve Eidam. "The problem was the house was in close proximity and there were some exposure issues."
Thirty firefighters responded to the call that went out at 11:24 p.m. on Wednesday. The Vista and New Canaan fire departments each supplied a tanker truck and several firefighters under mutual aid.
Eidam said the family, which had been at a Yankees game and wasn't home when the fire broke out, was using the garage as workshop. No cars were inside the structure.
"They had been doing some staining that day and they piled the rags outside the garage," Eidam said. "(The rags) spontaneously combusted and the fire started in a pile of rubbish and stored wood."
Eidam said the two-story garage was ultimately gutted.
"It was a pretty heavy fire condition upon our arrival," Eidam said.
The family had been constructing a new home on the other side of the garage and firefighters were able to minimize the damage to that structure as well. Eidam said it sustained some charred lumber and melted construction materials as a result of the radiant heat.
A distant neighbor called in the fire, Eidam said, who saw the flames through the woods that divide the properties. |
