CHELSEA — Two people are dead after a fire in Chelsea early Wednesday morning, Vermont State Police reported.
Firefighters from multiple towns including Chelsea and Tunbridge responded to a fire at a single-family home on North Common in Chelsea around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday and extinguished the blaze in about three and a half hours, according to a news release from State Police.
Investigators found the remains of two people in the wreckage of the home at 7 North Common. The bodies will be brought to the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for autopsies to determine their identities and cause and manner of death.
The Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Troop B East is investigating the deaths while the Vermont Department of Public Safety Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit is looking into the cause of the fire.
The home is a total loss, State Police reported.
A neighboring house at 5 North Common to the west sustained severe damage, while 9 North Common had minor damage.
Karen Snyder owns 7 North Common, according to property records, and the home is valued at $75,500. Snyder was one of two people living at the house along with Max Quayle, according to neighbors at the scene Wednesday.
Though people were still living at Snyder’s house, Chelsea Fire Chief Ed Coburn said the power had been disconnected and meters taken off the house a few weeks ago. Smoke detectors in the house had likely not worked “for years,” Coburn said.
Anyone with information that might aid investigators should call VSP’s Royalton Barracks at 802-234-9933 or anonymously online at https://vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit.
