Conway house fire blamed on woodstove ashes

By PAUL FRANZ and ANDY CASTILLO

Recorder Staff

Published: 03-24-2017 10:24 PM

CONWAY — No one was hurt in an early morning house fire Friday at 3064 Shelburne Falls Road, to which local fire crews tanked in water.

Fire Chief Robert Baker said the fire was “totally accidental,” ignited by embers from an ash pail on a back porch.

“The ashes (from a wood fire) were in a metal pail, on a workbench on a porch,” said Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman at the state Department of Fire Services. She said there weren’t any smoke alarms, and the pail had “no lid, which allowed the breeze to fan some not-quite-extinguished embers back to life.”

“It happens all the time. People put their fireplace or wood stove ashes in all different kinds of containers — plastic bags, recycle bins, mix it in the trash can, or dump it outside. It ignites leaves and dry grass,” Mieth continued. She noted that “people should use a metal pan with a tight fitting lid” to discard ashes.

As happened in Friday’s fire, one hot ash, she added, “can quickly be fanned back to life.”

The fire call came in just before 4 a.m. Firefighters immediately called for mutual aid. The homeowner, whom Baker declined to name, escaped from the burning home and ran about a quarter mile to a neighboring house to call 911.

According to town voting records, as of Aug. 25, 2016, the house’s occupants were John and David Maslanka. A resident of the house declined to talk to reporters.

When firefighters arrived, Baker said, there was “a lot of popping” as bullets inside the house exploded.

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Shortly after 4 a.m., a thick column of smoke could be seen rising in Conway from Route 2 by Gould’s Sugar House in Shelburne Center as fire trucks made their way to the scene along Shelburne Falls Road.

Tankers and engines lined the road and driveway of the single-family home set back from the road. A back porch was charred and fire could be seen inside the house as firefighters with air packs attacked with hoses leading in through the front door.

Smoke billowed from the eaves as firefighters tanked in water and set up a reservoir on scene to supply pumpers.

It took fire crews about 45 minutes to knock down the flames using water from fire truck tanks and a pond behind the house, Baker said. By 9 a.m., the fire was completely out and the scene was cleared.

Baker said the back of the house was badly damaged and that the building is uninhabitable at this time.

The fire was jointly investigated by the Conway Fire Department and State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Responding fire departments included Conway, Buckland, Shelburne Falls, Shelburne Center, Ashfield, Charlemont, Colrain, Greenfield, South Deerfield, Old Deerfield, Sunderland, and Whately as well as local ambulance crews.

The Conway Volunteer Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary was also activated to help.

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