ENFIELD – For Chad Netto and his family, three years of hard work, done around his regular job, was nearing completion.

New shingles were on the roof. A new entryway was finished, as were the swimming pool and deck. The interior had been completely remodeled and the new asphalt driveway was down at his one-story home at 26 Dodlin Road Extension.

But that was before an electrical outlet behind a basement freezer sparked a fire. Firefighters called to the scene at about 11 a.m. were able to douse the flames which had eaten through some of the first floor. But the fire reignited at about 3 a.m. destroying the house as Netto stood by helplessly.

“He just put a lot of money, and even more time, into the house, so he was pretty upset about it,” said Netto’s boss, Del Spencer, owner of I-95 Towing Co., Tuesday. “The more he talked about it, the more emotional he got. [Firefighters] tried, but they weren’t able to save much out of the house.”

Howland and Lincoln firefighters did everything they could to save the house, said Phil Dawson, who as chief of both departments oversaw about 35 paid and volunteer firefighters.

With Seboeis firefighters covering both towns in case of another emergency, firefighters stayed on the scene about three hours after the first fire was out, using blowers to vent and cool the house and digging embers out of the ashes, Dawson said.

Before leaving the scene, they scanned the house visually and with an infrared camera, finding nothing hotter than 70 degrees, he said. As they left, they told Netto to stay in case the fire flared again because “it was a deep burn,” Dawson said.

Netto was asleep in his truck when the fire reignited about 15 to 20 feet from where the first fire had started, Dawson said.

“We don’t believe the second ignition had anything to do with electricity,” he said. “The power didn’t trip itself off and it wasn’t an issue. … We didn’t have any electrical issues when we left.”

The suddenness and density of the flames Netto saw indicated that the second fire smoldered and built up a great deal of heat over a few hours before flaring, Dawson said.

Dawson said he regretted losing the house, but not his decision to have firefighters leave the scene after the first fire.

“At some point, you have to leave the scene to get people back in service,” he said. “We made a reasonable decision based on what we saw. We did the best job we could.”

Netto could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He and his family are staying with relatives. A lead mechanic and manager at I-95 Towing, Netto is a hard worker, very reliable and generous, who has worked there for about 12 years, Spencer said.

“He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t want to take a day off even if there was a death in the family,” he said.

The Nettos have two boys and a girl, Spencer said. He didn’t know what their immediate plans were, but said they already had received a partial insurance payment.