Ten years of work up in flames in Truthville
A dream went up in smoke Nov. 2 as fire claimed a Truthville home just before noon. The DeKalb Road home of Betty David was consumed by fire as fire fighters from eight area departments responded to the scene, but were unable to halt the fire.
Fire investigators said the type of construction and the materials the residence was constructed from contributed to the rapid advance of the flames.
Despite water from responding fire companies, in little more than 30 minutes only a few beams of the frame were left standing as firefighters continued to drench the smoldering ruins with water.
Initial indications seem to point toward a chimney fire likely started on the top floor and spreading to the rest of the house.
North Granville Fire Chief Scott McCullen later confirmed a chimney fire was the source of the fire.
Like the Bedlam Corners building in Hebron, McCullen said the structure was ‘balloon construction’ a building method no longer used and which works to effectively cultivate a fire once one gets started.
Firefighters stayed at the site until about 5 p.m. wetting down the site ensuring the fire would not restart.
David lives at the home with her son. Although neither of them was home at the time of the fire, two of David’s nieces were in the house. A pet cat had also been let outside prior to the fire, witnesses said.
No one was hurt, but David said she had been storing antiques in her basement anticipating starting an antique sales business. The house and all of the associated items are a total loss.
The three story post-and-beam house had formerly been located near Manchester, Vt. before it was disassembled and moved to Truthville to be reassembled, David’s brother Leonard David said.
Work on the house had been a more than 10-year project at the time of the fire, starting back in 2000, David said.
“I’m just a single mother trying to pay her bills and finish her house and it just…didn’t happen,” David said.
Coming from work in the village, David said she knew as soon as she left work at Telescope Casual Furniture on Church Street the house was a total loss.
“It’s all old lumber. I knew when I saw the smoke from Granville that it was gone,” she said.
The two neices reported hearing popping noises while having coffee on the first floor.
When the two went to investigate they were driven out of the house by overwhelming heat coming from the second floor area of the residence.
Fire fighters from North Granville, Penrhyn, Granville Engine and Hose, Granville Hook & Ladder, Whitehall, Hartford, Hampton, Fort Ann and West Pawlet, Vt. responded to the scene along with Granville EMS.
Kingsbury and Hebron stood by with tanker trucks at the North Granville station. McCullen said resources for the day time fire were actually stretched pretty thin by another fire, this one in Fort Edward, which was called out just seven minutes before DeKalb Road.