Neighbors, camera aid in Enfield house fire

ENFIELD – An elderly Enfield woman and her daughter escaped an early Sunday morning fire without injury.

Thanks to the quick actions of neighbors and new firefighting technology, Leona Hatch was able to return to her Dodlin Road home within an hour.

Howland Fire Chief Phil Dawson Jr. said no one was injured as a result of the 4:30 a.m. fire. Howland provides fire services to Enfield.

He said initially it was reported as a structure fire, but a few minutes later the department received a second report indicating the fire was on the outside of the house near a propane tank.

Dawson said the fire was caused by a tiny hole in the copper propane tube. “We believe it pulled the pilot flame through the tube, igniting the gas that was expelling from the hole outside near the tank,” he said.

The chief said the copper tube ran from the tank outside the house through the metal siding to a stove inside. “It chafed a hole in the tube, creating a vacuum, which caused the flame to come back through the tube, out the hole and igniting the propane outside,” he said. “We had fire under the siding and outside of the house.”

He said neighbors armed with garden hoses doused the fire with water and shut off the propane.

“The fire was in a wall and was coming out around the LP tanks,” said the chief. “When they shut the tank off the fire stopped.”

Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to trace the heat source of the fire. “We took away some boards and part of the siding in a very limited area,” he said. “By using the camera, damages to the house were minimized and it saved us a lot of time in finding the fire.”

About 15 firefighters and three trucks went to the scene and worked for about 45 minutes.