The state fire marshal is investigating an early morning fire that destroyed a home in Oxford.
Firefighters said a mother and four young children were sleeping when smoke detectors went off around 2 a.m., but all were able to escape the home.
The fire engulfed the entire house at 12 Church View Drive, and caused the roof to collapse.
“I woke up and all I could see were a lot of lights, and then I looked out my live room window and all I could see was a wall of fire," said Lisa Woodin, a neighbor.
Woodin ran down the block and found flames shooting out of the windows.
“The entire roof was on fire. The front porch was melting,” she said.
It took crews around 30 minutes to get the fire under control, and firefighters remained on scene for hours knocking down hotspots.
Local
“We made a desperate attempt to knock it down. We are in a section of town that doesn’t have any municipal fire hydrants so we had to run 1,000 feet of fire hose,” said Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier.
With the help of the Seymour and Southbury fire departments a drafting station was set up at the other end of the street. Pumping pools of water down to the home, firefighters eventually got the flames under control. But, it was too late. The home, which was just renovated three years ago is a total loss.
A neighbor said three of the children were of the couple that lives there and the fourth child was another family member.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
