WESTMINSTER — On Saturday, December 14, 2024, at about 7:32 a.m., the Westminster Fire Department responded to a report of a structure fire at 238 South Ashburnham Road.
According to a statement from Westminster’s Fire Chief Kyle Butterfield, the first responding units from both the town’s fire and police departments arrived on scene two minutes after the fire was reported. When they arrived on scene, first responders were met with a two-family home with a heavy blaze coming from the second floor.
A second and third alarm were struck to bring additional personnel and apparatuses to the scene from mutual aid departments.
Since the area of town where the fire took place did not have fire hydrants, Chief Butterfield said that water needed to be trucked to the scene from a mile down the road.
“First arriving crews began to extinguish the fire from the exterior of the building before making entry into the second floor,” Chief Butterfield said in the statement. “Due to the amount of fire throughout the second-floor, crews were quickly removed from the interior of the building and the fire was extinguished from the exterior. Fire operations extended well into the afternoon while a demolition company removed parts of the exterior walls so that firefighters could safely extinguish the remaining hot spots.”
There were no reported civilian or first responder injuries on scene, however, multiple pets were lost in the blaze.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by state police as well as the Fire District 8 Fire Investigation Unit, however, Chief Butterfield said that the preliminary investigation indicates that the fire was accidental in nature.
The Westminster Fire Department was assisted on scene by fire departments from the following municipalities: Fitchburg, Leominster, Gardner, Ashburnham, Hubbardston, Ashby, Sterling, Princeton, Barre, and Rutland. Fire personnel from Leominster and Winchendon provided station coverage while companies were attending the fire, Chief Butterfield said.
