WELLS RIVER — A fire destroyed a two-story home on Route 302 near Boltonville Road on Monday morning.
The home’s three occupants, two adults and a child, awoke to find the house filled with smoke around 5:30 a.m., Wells River Fire Chief Jeff Morin said at the scene Monday morning. The three occupants and a family dog made it out of the house safely.
Morin said the cause of the fire was unknown, but there had been an issue with the family’s pellet stove Sunday night and a hole in the floor under the stove indicated that the flames were coming up from the basement.
The roof of the home collapsed within 20 minutes of firefighters arriving on scene in the early hours Monday, Morin said.
The fire also downed power lines and brought down a chimney that scattered bricks across the road.
A stretch of Route 302 in Wells River was closed to traffic while crews took on the fire early Monday morning, starting around 5:15 a.m. Around 6:30 a.m., emergency services opened one lane of traffic.
As of about 8:30 a.m., crews were using an excavator to bring down the remains of the completely destroyed home.
In addition to those from Wells River, firefighters from Groton, Vt.; Newbury, Vt.; Ryegate, Vt.; and Woodsville responded Monday morning. Morin expected to have a few firefighters stay on scene to extinguish any hot spots during the day.
