Two dogs may have died in a fire that engulfed a home on Campbell Road in Francestown on Thursday night.
“There were three pets in the house, two dogs and a cat. All were in the house at the time,” said Ariel Brekka, who was in the house when the fire broke out, in a message to the Ledger-Transcript on Saturday night.“I saw the cat get out. I did not see if the dogs got out, it is possible that they did. None of them have been seen since that night. Our hearts are breaking over it.”
Francestown Fire Chief Larry Kullgren said the department received a call about the structure fire around 9:40 p.m. Kullgren said the department was able to respond quickly to the call but, even still, the fire resulted in a total loss.
“The fire was well developed by the time we got there,” he said on Monday afternoon. “It started in the basement and had made its way to the first floor.”
He said firefighters from eight different communities, who were called in to help with fire suppression, were pushed back by intense heat and flames.
“We made the decision to go defensive with exterior operations because the floor was compromised,” Kullgren said.
Ariel Brekka and her young son, Cole, were in the house when the fire ignited. They were examined by the Peterborough rescue crews, but refused treatment. Kullgren said the two made arrangements to stay with a neighbor for the night.
Kullgren said it’s possible the fire was caused by a wood-fired furnace in the basement, although that has not been confirmed.
Mutual aid personnel were released from the scene around 2:30 a.m. A local excavation company was called in early Friday morning to take down the structure.
“The building had collapsed,” Kullgren said about the decision, noting that the company took down layers of roofing and walls that had hot pockets of smoldering debris.
Crews were on scene until around 6:30 a.m., cleaning up the site, Kullgren said.
The house is owned by John Brekka, who was on vacation in Denmark when the fire occurred.
Two GoFundMe sites were set up to support the family, one for the owners and another for the young family who staying in the house when the fire started.
The site for the owners John and Anna Brekka had raised more than $5,000 by Monday morning, and the site set up for Nick, Ariel and their son Cole had surged to about $13,500.
One of the funds asks people to pitch in even $5 if they are able to afford to do so, money it says will be useful for helping to land the family “back on their feet.”
“They lost everything and are in need,” it says.
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