Shira Sschoenberg
Concord Monitor
DUNBARTON, N.H. — A Dunbarton woodworker whose shop was destroyed by fire plans to keep his employees on the payroll until he can resume work next month.
“I’ve got loyal guys, here 10, 12 years,” said William Morse, who owns Dungan-Tingley Chairworks. “Somebody’s got to rebuild the building, and we’re a bunch of woodworkers.”
Morse’s state-of-the-art woodworking shop, at 111 Stark Highway South, burned to the ground Wednesday night. Dunbarton Fire Chief Jonathan Wiggin said the cause was likely a strong gust of wind that caused a downdraft in the chimney and blew sparks out of the woodstove, which was still smoldering.
The fire started about 9 p.m. Morse said he was watching the Duke basketball game, then got up to turn the television off and saw his backyard was glowing. At that moment, a police officer started banging on his door, telling him to evacuate the house, which was about 50 feet from the workshop. Morse, his wife Linda, and their 17- year-old son left the house and parked their two dogs - an English bulldog and a golden retriever - inside the police cruiser.
Eight fire departments responded to the scene, and a ninth covered the Dunbarton station. Firefighters took an hour and a half to get the fire under control and did not clear the scene until 1 a.m. Yesterday morning, they were called back to additional hotspots.
Wiggin said the 3,000 square-foot building had a lot of lumber and sawdust in it, making the fire difficult to extinguish. Strong winds of up to 30 miles per hour also made firefighting difficult, blowing embers and flames horizontally. One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion.
Because the wind was blowing away from the Morses’ home, firefighters were able to wet down the house; it sustained only minor heat damage. A horse barn behind the shop was also saved, and the horse had been moved out weeks before. But the woodworking shop was destroyed, along with state-of-the-art machinery, 50 completed chairs and 150 chairs ready to be assembled. The fire also claimed Morse’s John Deere tractor and delivery truck, both of which exploded, Morse said. Wiggin said the total value of the damage exceeded $200,000. The building was insured.
Also lost was a 14-foot, two-ton, 100-year-old lathe belonging to employee Don Allard of Warner, said Allard’s mother-in-law, Sherry Thomas. Thomas said Allard had used the lathe, nicknamed “Big Bertha,” for decades. Allard turned the wood used for legs and backs of chairs, and for balusters, including hundreds recently used in the renovation of the historic Trinity Church in Boston.
“To have his extension, his tool, the other half of his body destroyed in a fire, it’s like losing a limb,” Thomas said. “It renders you useless in the execution of your art, and also who you are as a person, your identity, much less feeding your family.”
Morse, 55, started working in the furniture business in 1971. He built his house in Dunbarton in 1980 and moved the shop there from Derry in 1992. The furniture makers at Dungan-Tingley Chairworks create reproductions of American antique furniture, which are sold primarily to furniture stores around New England.
Morse said he hopes to purchase new machinery this week and start working from another building on the property by next month.
When speaking about the loss, Morse sounds matter of fact. Twelve years ago, he said, his 10-year-old son died. The boy, who was developmentally disabled, drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool. “Honestly, compared to losing a boy,” he said, “this is an inconvenience, nothing more.”
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