By Maura Sullivan
The Concord Monitor
FRANKLIN, N.H. — Investigators are suspicious of the cause of the second fire in three days at a home in Franklin.
The first fire occurred in a second-floor bedroom at 115 Summit St. about 5 p.m. Monday, and Franklin fire Capt. Gary Hicks said the cause of that fire was left undetermined. Firefighters brought the blaze under control within five minutes and contained it to one room.
Homeowners Edwin and Wendy Ford said they had turned the heat and electricity back on in a portion of the home and moved back into the first floor Tuesday night.
The second fire happened Wednesday. Wendy Ford said she was walking across the lawn to her neighbor’s house about 9:30 p.m. when she smelled smoke.
“I just thought that it was residual smoke from the first fire, but then I heard the alarm on the second floor go off,” she said, speaking from outside the remains of her house yesterday morning.
Firefighters arrived on the scene to find smoke coming from the first and second floor and the home engulfed in flames. Members of the Franklin Fire Department, assisted by the Tilton/Northfield, Belmont, Hill and Sanbornton departments, brought the fire under control in about 30 minutes.
The debris from Monday’s fire still lay on the front lawn yesterday morning, but this time there was more added to the mess. The side garden was littered with wood, glass and a laundry basket full of burned clothes. Most of the home’s siding on the second floor was either burned entirely or melted and peeling back from the frame of the house. Caution tape surrounded the home. Edwin and Wendy Ford huddled under the trunk of a minivan to shelter themselves from the rain while they talked to investigators.
Investigators from the state fire marshal’s office and the Franklin Fire Department were at the house most of the day yesterday conducting interviews and investigating. They deemed the fire suspicious but did not have any concrete information.
“We do not know the cause and have no idea where it started, but with two fires, we need to rule out causes and anything like that. We are starting the investigation portion now,” Hicks said from outside the home.
The Fords said they did not know how the fire could have started.
Franklin fire Chief Royal Smith said that the house was a complete loss after the first fire and that it is possible the Fords’ return to the house Tuesday night had something to do with the second fire.
“We can’t rule it out,” he said.
The fire department estimated there was $120,000 worth of damage to the house, and an insurance adjuster was coming to the house yesterday afternoon to further assess the damage.
Edwin and Wendy Ford stayed with Wendy’s son Ryan Stunis, 23, last night. Daughter Heather Ford, 14, is staying with friends in Hill, and Wendy’s son Jacob Maynard, 16, is with the Pitmans, their next-door neighbors.
“It’s his favorite place to hang out anyway. Our families are very close. It’s how neighbors are, how they are supposed to be. We help each other out,” Maura Pitman said.
The Franklin community has reached out to the Fords, anonymously leaving bags of clothes and food for them at the Pitman home.
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