By Maddie Hanna
Concord Monitor
CONCORD, N.H. — After she got in bed Wednesday night, Heather Edwards happened to look toward her window and saw a few puffs of smoke.
Minutes later, she was ushering her five children out of the family’s East Concord home, which would soon be engulfed in flames.
“It was just so quick,” she said last night.
The fire, which officials said was electrical in nature, began about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday and was under control by 1:30 yesterday morning.
In that time span, it heavily damaged Tim and Heather Edwards’s home, a 150-year-old farmhouse on Curtisville Road that has been in Heather Edwards’s family for generations.
The house’s roof collapsed in the fire, which was challenging to extinguish in part because of the building’s age.
Being an old home, “it had a lot of concealed spaces,” said fire Chief Dan Andrus. He said firefighters had to cut holes in the structure to access the spaces, and “we found a lot of fire in those.”
They also had to cut holes in the ice covering a nearby pond to get water. Given the home’s remote location, there were no hydrants in the area, and while the fire department brought a tanker, firefighters needed to be able to refill it, Andrus said.
Andrus also said that the road leading to the house was narrow and that the surrounding area was “very, very icy.” Between the 30 firefighters at the scene and the seven members of the Edwards family, Andrus said, “I’m very pleased that nobody had any injury.”
The Edwards family stayed with neighbors Wednesday night, and by yesterday the Red Cross had put them up in a hotel.
The family plans to meet with a contractor today, but Heather Edwards said last night that she’s already been told it will be months before the family can rebuild and move back home.
Andrus said the worst damage was confined to the house’s attic on the side of the building facing the road, but Edwards said the contractor told her half of the house may need to be demolished.
But while she said the fire was devastating, Edwards said she feels lucky her children are safe. Even the family’s two cats — one of which was rescued by firefighters — and dog escaped the flames, she said.
Edwards also said she was grateful for the support from the community, which she said is buoying the family’s spirits.
“In times like this when you want to wallow in your sorrow . . . that helps, it really does,” she said.
And while the family has lost many belongings, she said, “the memories will still be there.”
Copyright 2011 Concord Monitor/Sunday Monitor