WINDHAM – A Windham home was hit by a fire in the midst of last week’s raging blizzard, complicating efforts to extinguish the blaze that left a Windham family homeless and destroyed most of their belongings.

“We’re numb,” Vickie Clarke said, while standing outside the house at 81 Swett Road on Monday, holding a plastic tub filled with important items she was able to save. “It’s just overwhelming.”

Vickie Clarke and her husband David, along with their daughter Crystal and another daughter’s visiting family, awoke to a cold house when the power went out around 6 a.m. Saturday. Aiming to restore power, David Clarke went into the attached garage to start a portable generator. About 10 minutes later, when the lights suddenly turned off, he went back into the garage but was stopped by billowing black smoke.

Clarke grabbed a fire extinguisher inside the home, went back to the garage door but couldn’t get through the smoke. Instead, the family immediately called 911 and got out of the house and into the still-raging blizzard that had dumped about 2 feet of snow overnight. As they fled, a grandchild was still in pajamas and Vickie Clarke, a nurse at Manchester Elementary School, had bare feet.

Firefighters arrived a few minutes later and were able to contain the fire to the garage and a portion of the kitchen. However, due to a number of smoldering hot spots, the fire rekindled at different points Saturday and Sunday. After the fire was completely extinguished, there wasn’t much left of the house, which served as the Clarkes’ home for 13 years and was Vickie Clarke’s childhood home.

On Monday morning, the Clarkes, along with their daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Jeffrey Novakouski, who had come up from Massachusetts for the weekend in hopes of avoiding the worst of the blizzard and potential power outages, were at the home salvaging what remained.

The couple is staying at the Casco home of Vickie’s mother, Addie Hall. Hall sold the 81 Swett Road home to the Clarkes 13 years ago. David, an insurance adjuster, will spend this week working with the insurance company to replace what was lost, which was almost everything, he said.

“People ask, ‘What do you need?’ We need everything,” David Clarke said.

A sofa, recliners, tables, and other furniture sat charred on the living room floor. Most everything was ice-covered, wet or burned. Everything was in disarray. One item that survived was a hutch David’s parents gave the couple for their wedding.

“It was encased in ice and it will probably need to be refinished, but at least we have it,” he said.

Four flareups

The firefight was frustrating and intense, Windham Fire Chief Charlie Hammond said, no thanks to the storm. Firefighters responded at 6:24 a.m. Saturday during high winds and blowing snow. Trucks got stuck, and, Hammond said, the snow was so deep that one first responder unknowingly jumped out of his truck into a roadside ditch that swallowed him up chest high in fluffy snow. Once in position to fight the flames, the cold wind was no friend.

“They were trying to spray water, but the wind was coming the opposite way so water is coming back on you. It’s like working on a ship with spray all over the deck,” Hammond said. “They were dragging a hose around in 2 feet of snow. So it was a tremendous amount of effort to do anything.”

Hammond said firefighters managed to knock down the garage fire and kept it from spreading to the main house except for a small portion in the kitchen.

“We thought we had it extinguished. But when it’s that cold and you coat something with ice, the water doesn’t go down into it, it stays on top, so if there’s any smoldering in that paper insulation, it’s protected,” Hammond said.

“You’re trying to preserve and respect their property and you try not to do any more damage than you have to. So there was no smoke, there was nothing when they left,” Hammond said.

During the day on Saturday, firefighters who Hammond said routinely monitor properties after a fire for hot spots, went back and extinguished a few smoldering embers, the second flare-up of the weekend. But at about 9:20 p.m. a passing motorist who saw fire called 911. The fire, which caught on the backside of the home, likely started in the attic insulation and damaged the roof, which then collapsed into the home. No one was at the home when the roof gave way.

Once firefighters were done battling the 9:20 p.m. blaze, Hammond decided to keep someone on scene until about 4:30 a.m. to make sure to douse any additional embers that flared.

Thinking the fire was under control, the watchman left but on Sunday at about 10 a.m., Hammond received another 911 call reporting another fire had caught in the front of the home near the fascia board.

“We cut open the front sheathing,” he said. “Paper insulation had dropped down and the fire got going inside the wall.”

That fire did significant damage to the front part of the home, leaving no part of the home unscathed after the four separate blazes.

To the rescue

Despite the loss of their house, as well as many family heirlooms and possessions, the Clarkes seemed in good spirits as they worked to clean up Monday. David Clarke was also able to find the irony in their daughter’s family coming to Windham to find shelter from the storm.

“My daughter, Heather, and her husband and our two grandkids came up here from Massachusetts to be safe because their house has electric heat and they lose power quite easily,” he said. “They ended up never losing power though.”

The Clarkes’ other daughter, Crystal, had recently sold her house and was storing items in the basement and garage that were also lost in the fire, he added.

“But everybody got out fine, so that was good,” he added.

The school community and those who have known the Clarkes for years are coming to the aid of the family. Vickie Clarke said a collection is already being taken by the nurses in the school system. Also, Rita Bernier at the Windham Town Clerk’s Office is raising money for the family.

“It’s trashed – the whole house is gone,” said Sue Accardi, the school nurse at Windham High School and longtime friend of Vickie’s. “It’s awful, just awful, and she’s been a member of this community all her life.”?

Accardi said whatever money the nurses collect at the school, up to $1,500, will be matched by the support staff union for RSU 14, “so that’s great,” Accardi said.

Those wishing to donate to the family can wait until school vacation (Feb. 18-22) is over and bring or mail their donations to Amy Hanrahan, secretary at Manchester Elementary School in North Windham. Or, more immediate aid can be brought to Bernier at town hall during working hours Monday through Thursday. The Clarkes, who lost most of their clothes in the fire, said gift cards to Kohl’s or Walmart would be best.

They are also looking for a place to stay, preferably in Windham.

“People have already helped out. They’ve brought food, they’ve brought clothes, everybody has been so helpful,” Vickie Clarke said. “People came Sunday from school to help us take stuff out of the house, they’ve been calling, they’ve been really wonderful. And we appreciate it.”

Members of the Clarke family – David, Vickie and their daughter Crystal – salvage items Monday morning from their burned home at 81 Swett Road. Vickie Clarke lived in the house growing up and moved back 13 years ago. The house suffered several fires on Saturday and Sunday. Staff photo by John Balentine

David Clarke carries items out of what used to be his living room at 81 Swett Road in Windham.
Four separate flareups of a fire that originated in the garage made a mess of the Clarke family home on Swett Road over the weekend. Staff photos by John Balentine