Eleven people are displaced after a fire destroyed a home on High Street in Stafford.
The Stafford fire department said the fire started in the basement around 2 a.m. and quickly worked its way up to the first story. Three minutes later, the house was fully engulfed in flames, from the basement to the attic on the third floor.
The fire department said a couple of cars, the shed in the back and some propane tanks also burned.
The Stafford Fire Department along with the Somers, Crystal Lake and Tolland fire departments worked to put the flames out.
“It was a rapidly moving fire,” Fire Chief Dave Lucia said. “Of course, the fire marshal will be looking into what caused it and double check that it was balloon construction, but that's what it seems to be at this time. Fire was in the basement, traveled right up the walls in the attic and that's what we're fighting right now."
Two families lived in the home and both had working smoking detectors, which alerted the four people in the home so they were able to get out safely with their two dogs. The other family was away on vacation.
“Those smoke detectors saved their lives today, so it’s so important that that people test those and make sure they work, have a plan to get out -- everyone meet in the same place,” Jon Basso, Red Cross’s senior director for emergency services region 3, said.
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Nobody was injured in the fire. The American Red Cross is providing assistance to the families.
