By Paul Montgomery
The Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
ANDOVER, N.H. — An elderly Meadow Lark Lane couple died Friday in an early morning fire. Their son was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
A neighbor identified the couple as Roger and Mary Pellerin.
“While the investigation into the origin and cause of the fire is still on going, investigators believe that the fire is accidental in nature and most probably related to the operation of the woodstove in the home,” the N.H. State Fire Marshal’s Office said in a press release Friday evening.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Rob Farley said Andover firefighters were called to a structure fire at 12 Meadow Lark Lane at 2:26 a.m. on Friday.
Two minutes later Fire Capt. Jake Johnson arrived, Farley said “He’s a part-time security guard at Proctor Academy that is just around the corner.”
Within six minutes the first engine was on scene, he said. “They had a fully engulfed structure fire upon their arrival.”
A deceased woman was just outside the house and although firefighters were told another fire victim was inside the home, flames prevented firefighters from entering, Farley said.
Meadow Lark Lane is a small, four-house road off Route 4. Friday afternoon Farley said a couple in their late 70s who had lived in the home for about 40 years had died in the blaze and that their son, in his 40s, was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The elderly wife was found outside of the house, the elderly husband was found around 8:30 a.m. on the second floor after the fire was extinguished.
It took another three hours for firefighters to remove the second fire victim because the structure was dangerous to enter.
A platform from the Franklin Fire Department was used to cut the roof and second floor wall so that the male fire victim could be taken out of the house, Farley said.
Autopsies were performed on the couple by the state Medical Examiner on Friday.
Shortly after 5 p.m. the Fire Marshal’s office identified the woman in a press release as Mary Pellerin, 80, of 12 Meadowlark Lane.
“Identification of the other deceased victim will be released by the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office,” the press release said.
Neighbor Ken Guillemette said Roger and Mary Pellerin had lived in the home since he moved to the neighborhood in 1979.
Bob Pellerin, Roger and Mary’s son, had grown up in the home and then moved back later in life.
Guillemette said he had been awoken that morning by Bob Pellerin’s cries.
“I was asleep and at 2:30 in the morning I heard this screaming, I heard this yelling, and it didn’t go away ... so I got up to see what was going on,” he said.
Guillemette opened his front door and saw his neighbor’s home engulfed in flames.
“It was horrendous. I opened the door and looked out and said, ‘Oh my God,’” Guillemette said. “I knew at that moment. I said to myself, ‘I hope they’re all out cause no one’s going to be alive in that,’ cause there were flames coming out of every window, about 20 feet.”
He dressed as quickly as he could and ran over to the house.
Johnson was the only one at the scene at that point, Guillemette said.
“I asked him, ‘Are they out?’ ... He said ‘no, there were people inside still,’” Guillemette said.
Bob Pellerin at that point had been taken in by another neighbor. He had come out of the burning house dragging his mother, wearing only his underwear and had cut his foot.
Guillemette said he went to see Pellerin who said he was unable to re-enter the house to save his father.
“He said he couldn’t go back in. He said it was too, too hot, too much,” Guillemette said. “He was very distraught, he had a cut foot and he smelled like fire.”
Guillemette described the Pellerin’s as “a very nice family, very tight, close family.”
Roger and Mary were well-known in the community, he said. Roger was a retired janitor who had worked at the elementary school in town. Mary was also retired, after working at the Proctor Academy for many years.
“They were very well liked,” he said.
Bob Pellerin has two young daughters who sometimes visit and sleepover, but the girls had not been at the home that night, Guillemette said.
He added that he remembers the laughter from the house when the granddaughters would visit. The family would laugh and play games together, he said.
Farley said members of the Andover Fire Department are to be commended for their quick response and tenacious effort to battle the blaze.
“Our hats are tipped off to the Andover Fire Department. They did a tremendous job getting here and working really hard in making an attempt to extinguish the fire very quickly. They are an all-volunteer fire department, to get here as quickly as they did is commendable,” Farley said.
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