Heavy smoke and quickly spreading fire engulfed a Fairfield beach rental house, destroying the 495 Reef Road two-family home in one hour on Sept 8.
No one was inside the house when the blaze began at 11:14 a.m. Tenant and Fairfield University athletic trainer Jodi Marak, 26, was outside gardening when she heard a beeping noise from within the house.
“I thought it was the smoke alarm, so I stuck my head in the front door,” Marak said. “I saw smoke, and I called 911 from my cell phone. I never went back into the house.”
The fire department arrived on the scene within two minutes. On arrival, firefighters reported heavy smoke and flames from the first and second floor in the rear.
“The fire was very difficult to extinguish because it was a two family home that was compartmentalized,” said Fairfield Fire Captain George Gomola. “It was difficult to navigate,” he said.
The fire spread to the attic before it was extinguished at 12:21 p.m. Firefighters had to cut two holes in the attic to release smoke so that the fire did not burn through the roof.
“Firefighters from Fairfield and Bridgeport fought the blaze for an hour before it was under control,” Gomola said.
The tenants included Fairfield University employees and former students Jodi Marak, 26, athletic trainer, Jen Smith, 25, assistant softball coach, Richard Morton, assistant soccer coach, Rae Metz, 25, and Bernard Gately, 21, both Fairfield graduates and former Fairfield ice hockey players.
Although no tenants were injured, one firefighter went to St. Vincent’s Immediate Health Care on the Post Rd. in Fairfield due to a hand injury.
“The house was heavily damaged by smoke and fire,” Gomola said.
At press time, the cause of the fire was under investigation by the Fire Marshal.
Marak reports that neither the stove nor the iron was turned on, and no candles were lit. She suspected the cause was probably electrical.
Marak and her housemates had been living in the house for a year and a half. A sixth housemate, Alicia Blaschke, was in the process of moving in.
The only material possession in the house that Marak was concerned about was her engagement ring. She and her fiancé, New Haven resident Tim Ouellette, 26, were engaged Sept. 6, and Marak had taken off her ring before gardening. She was relieved when one of the firefighters was able to retrieve it once the blaze was extinguished.
“It’s only a little damaged,” she said.
There was so much smoke and heat damage, virtually nothing was salvageable, according to Marak. None of the tenants had renter’s insurance.
“We learned a lesson- get renter’s insurance,” she said. “It would have covered up to $40,000, but now we have nothing.”
The fire caused approximately $350,000 in damage, as well as $5,000 in damage to a neighbor’s aluminum sided home, according to the The Connecticut Post.
Westport resident Leonhard Pantschenko owned the seven-bedroom house that was recently assessed at $315,140, a decline in value from its original purchase price of $462,500 in 2002.
“It’s a loss, but it’s not anything we can’t replace,” Marak said. “Thank God no one was hurt.”
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