Updated: Haas Road Home Heavily Damaged After Wednesday Morning Fire

Update, 4:30 p.m.

Somers Deputy Chief Frank Falcone said that a good third of the home was damaged by fire, smoke, and heat.

“Heavy damage was done to the basement, first floor, and second floor of the older section of the house,” he said. “[The homeowner] cannot live in the house. She probably won’t be in the house for the holidays.”

Falcone said that the call came in at 8:27 a.m. from the homeowner, reporting a fire in the basement. He said that while he was en route, a neighbor called and said that there were flames showing so he called for a second alarm and mutual aid.

The ambulance got there first and reported a working fire with fire coming from the basement windows and first floor kitchen and heavy smoke.

When the firefighters arrived they started the attack and found heavy fire in the basement, coming up the basement stairs and into the kitchen. The kitchen then caught on fire and it extended out the windows and into a second floor bedroom.

Falcone said that the house has two sections, with the older section in the back and a newer section in the front, and that the fire started in the older section in the basement kitchen. He said that the firefighters stopped the fire from getting into the front section and cut it off from the homeowner’s bedroom on the second floor.

According to Falcone, being an older house, it’s not fire stopped so if a fire starts in the basement, it gets into the wall and travels right up pretty quickly through the walls.

“We had a lot of that going on,” he said.

The fire was brought under control in about an hour and a half. This area of Somers does not have hydrants so the department and its mutual aid had a lot of water on wheels and also used a dump tank and water from the pond at Camp Aya-Po down the street.

After the fire was out, Falcone said that there was extensive overhaul and that they had to open walls.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Update, 12 p.m.

The American Red Cross is helping two adults with emergency food and clothing needs after this fire.

The Red Cross is also providing comfort kits, containing age and gender appropriate personal care items - such as toothbrushes, deodorant, shaving supplies and other items - that they might not have been able to gather in the rush to escape the fire.

For more information about the Red Cross and how you can help, visit www.redcross.org.

Update, 10 a.m.

Two residents were home at the time of the fire and both escaped unharmed.

Jeff, who lives at the home, said that he had just gotten up for work and heard the smoke alarms going off. He said that he got up, got dress, and ran down the stairs. He heard the other person in the home saying, "Oh my God, oh my God," and got her out. He then got out of the house himself.

"That was it," he said. "I wasn't messing around."

Mutual aid from Ellington, Crystal Lake, Tolland, , Hampden, and East Longmeadow assisted the Somers Fire Department.

Original Story

On Wednesday morning, the Somers Fire Department received a call reporting a fire at 12 Haas Rd. in Somers.

Stay with Patch for updates as they become available.