MERIDEN — An apparent chimney fire tore through a 240-year-old farmhouse on Colby Hill Road on Thursday, destroying the building but leaving the resident inside unharmed.
Around 12:30 p.m. a passerby saw smoke coming from the roof of 143 Colby Hill Road and knocked on the door to tell homeowner Margaret Gibson about the problem, according to Meriden Fire Chief Bill Taylor.
They contacted emergency responders, who arrived to find smoke and flames coming from the roof of the two-story home on top of a hill, where Gibson lived alone.
Plainfield Police Chief Paul Roberts said Gibson had started a fire in her woodstove, and that investigators believe a small wood chip in the chimney might have caused the blaze. From the stove, the fire traveled to the roof, and then the lawn outside Gibson’s home, he said.
Authorities were still investigating the fire and hadn’t made an official ruling on the cause by Thursday afternoon.
Fire crews from Cornish, Lebanon, Windsor, Plainfield, Meriden, Grantham, Hartford, Ascutney and Norwich all responded to the blaze and worked for around three hours to get the fire under control, according to Taylor.
He said seven tankers from various towns brought water to the blaze.
Initially, crews had trouble responding to the fire because the Meriden Covered Bridge, which sits on the intersection of Colby Hill Road and Willow Brook Road was under construction and inaccessible, he said. Instead, firefighters had to go around a longer way, by Ladieu Road.
Windy conditions also made it more difficult to control the fire and may have made the damage to the house worse, Roberts said.
Nearly three hours after the first call, crews were still on the scene, spraying water on the charred remains of the house. Several walls on the eastern section of the home were still standing, but the roof and a central chimney had caved in by 3:30 p.m., and smoke was still pouring out of the house.
Roberts, who called the home a “total loss,” estimated that firefighters would be at the scene until 7 or 8 p.m. Thursday, putting out the remaining hot spots. He said police and firefighters were discussing whether they need to demolish the house Thursday night because it’s unsafe.
Gibson, who was at the scene Thursday, declined to comment. But she watched as firefighters tried to rescue a large wooden desk from within the smoking remains.
Assessing records indicate the wood-frame colonial home was built around 1780. The property, which includes 21 acres of land on top of a hill with views of the mountains is assessed at $363,873, according to town records.
Taylor said the home was once owned and lived in by the “first Marlboro Man” David Millar, who modeled for the cigarette company as the iconic cowboy figure in the 1960s. Millar lived in the home until his death in 1987, and the house was later passed down to Gibson, who is a relative of his, Taylor said. Earlier in the day, the National Weather Service had issued a warning of an elevated fire danger in the region, saying, “Very dry air and breezy conditions will combine with dry brush and vegetation to create the potential for rapid fire spread across much of New Hampshire this afternoon.”
The Kimball Union Fire Brigade wrote about the blaze in a Facebook post Thursday, calling it a “sad day in Meriden.” They wrote that the home was owned by a parent of a Kimball Union Academy alum, and that crews were still helping to put out the fire Thursday evening.
“We miss our whole squad. It has been a hard day,” the post read.
Staff writer John Gregg contributed to this report.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.