For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2017
www.mass.gov/KeepWarmKeepSafe
Woodstove Caused Fatal Warwick Fire
State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey, Warwick Fire Chief Ronald P. Gates
and Warwick Police Chief David Shoemaker said Saturday's fatal fire at 405
Richmond Road in Warwick started as a woodstove fire that extended to the
structure itself. Five members of the family, Lucinda Seago and four
children ages 7, 9, 12, and 15, perished in the fire according to
Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan. Her husband and one child
managed to escape.
The fire started in the kitchen on the first floor where the woodstove
ignited nearby combustibles.
State Fire Marshal Ostroskey said, "Last weekend seven people died in two
heating related fires. It will be cold again this weekend and I urge
everyone to keep safety in mind while trying to keep warm."
Chief Gates said, "This is a small community of neighbors helping neighbors
and our hearts are heavy with the loss the Seago family has suffered." The
single family home was fully engulfed in fire by the time firefighters first
arrived.
Ostroskey said, "No one expects to have a fire. It is so important to have
working smoke and CO alarms on every level, and to have a home escape plan
with two ways out of every room and a meeting place outside, and to practice
it."
Fire officials urge residents to have their furnaces and chimneys cleaned at
the start of every heating season by licensed professionals. A chimney sweep
can also look for cracked and broken mortar inside the chimney that allows
heat to escape and over time start a fire. Keep combustibles like
newspapers, kindling and extra wood 3-feet away from the wood stove.
The home was located on a narrow dirt road on which no two fire trucks could
pass each other. Responding firefighters shuttled water in their pumpers
from a pond about 1/3 of mile away to the home and then continued in a
one-way loop through New Hampshire to return to the pond in a circuit that
took about 45 minutes. The sub-zero temperatures froze equipment making the
shuttle more difficult. Mutual aid was received from sixteen fire
departments and two EMS companies from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
Vermont. Chief Gates said, "I know the men and women of the Warwick Fire
Department and the mutual aid companies fought this fire with everything
they had."
The fire was jointly investigated by the Warwick Fire and Police Departments
and State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal and to the
Office of Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan. Assistance was
received from the Code Compliance & Enforcement Unit in the Department of
Fire Services and the State Police Crime Scene Services Unit.
For more heating safety tips visit www.mass.gov/keepwarmkeepsafe.
David Young
Administrative Coordinator
Town of Warwick
978-729-3224 (mobile)
978-544-6315 (Selectboard office)
413-676-9544 (Broadband service)
