Toddler, adult killed in house fire

The Union Leader

NEW IPSWICH, N.H. — Smoke inhalation claimed the 23-month-old who died in a house fire Sunday, fire officials said.

Neighbor Ronald Boulerice said Gregory Paul Prince Jr. did not live at 36 Huse Road, but was visiting his grandparents and other family members.

A second fire victim, a 26-year-old man, has not been officially identified, but Boulerice said he is an uncle of the dead toddler. Five other fire victims have been hospitalized.

Boulerice said he has known the family for 15 years.

Gregory's grandparents remain hospitalized in intensive care, he said; the other three family members are in less serious condition. The family home was destroyed, Boulerice said.

Nennies 5 Star Cafe and Catering on Route 123 has set up a charity for the family, he said.

In a Monday afternoon news release, New Hampshire State Fire Marshal J. William Degnan, New Ipswich Police Chief Timothy Carpenter, and New Ipswich Fire Chief David Leel, said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Degnan said Sunday the fire does not appear to be suspicious.

"Investigators are focusing on several potential accidental causes for the fire which originated in the attached garage," the news release said.

Seven people were inside the building when the fire started, Degnan said. It took about two hours before the fire was knocked down.

Firefighters were called to the two-story home around 5:40 a.m., Degnan said. Mutual aid calls to surrounding communities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts went out for tanker trucks to battle the flames, he said.

Huse Road is a dirt road off Timbertop Road with only five homes.

Degnan said the search for the bodies took a long time because what remained of the house was unstable and unsafe. The two were located in the rubble and taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Concord for identification.

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