By Lorna Colquhoun
The Union Leader
THORNTON, NH — Several firefighters were knocked down several stairs Tuesday while fighting a fire at a farmhouse.
Campton-Thornton Fire Chief David Tobine said none of the firefighters were hurt when the fire flashed over while they were heading up to the second floor of the home.
“It blew out the windows and knocked them down the stairway,” he said. “They were checked out at the scene — none of them were injured.”
None required further treatment.
An investigator from the state Fire Marshal’s Office was on the scene to help determine a cause. Tobine said the fire started in a bathroom, where someone was using a torch to thaw frozen pipes.
Firefighters were called to the two-and-a-half-story house at 6 Lyford’s Crossing, off Route 3, at about 3:40 p.m., Tobine said.
When the first crews arrived, “there was quite a lot of smoke coming out of the roof and there was a fire in the back,” he said.
The family of Phil Jenks, including three children, were at home at the time and got out safely.
Tobine said the house, which is broken into apartments, had smoke detectors. One of the people home at the time noticed smoke coming out of the electrical sockets in the apartment.
“When I saw the fire, I called in a second alarm,” Tobine said, which brought firefighters from nine departments and 14 fire trucks.
That many trucks were needed, he said, because the closest water source was three miles away.
The fire was brought under control about 6 p.m.
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