A Jaffrey police officer lost her two dogs in a fire that also destroyed her Gilsum home Thursday afternoon.
Amanda Swanson arrived home after work to find her house in flames, according to cousin Samantha O’Neil on a GoFundMe page she started to help Swanson. Swanson broke a sliding door in an attempt to get her two dogs – Oakley and Axel – out, O’Neill said, but they had both died by the time she arrived.
“She’s pretty distraught, as expected,” O’Neil said in an interview on Friday. “Her dogs were her best friends – that’s the biggest loss. It’s really her dogs that she’s most distraught about.”
Gilsum Fire Chief William Johnson said the White Brook Road residence was fully involved by the time fire crews began to arrive. The call for a first-alarm fire went out at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
“I don’t know what started it, the place was pretty well burned up,” Johnson said. “… there was no chance of saving it.”
There were no injuries outside of the animals that died, Johnson said.
“I tried talking with her but she was too shook up,” Johnson said.
There has been a lot of love and outpouring of support towards Swanson since the fire took place, O’Neil said.
“Today she’s a bit better, but there’s a whirlwind of things going on,” O’Neil said. “She lost everything, she’s had to buy new clothing and things like that.”
O’Neil said those who wish to help Swanson can do so by donating through the GoFundMe page.
Swanson has been a police officer in the Jaffrey and Rindge community since March 2016, when she was hired as a part-time officer with the Rindge Police Department.
She became a full-time police officer in Rindge at the beginning of 2017 and started working in Jaffrey in February 2018.
“We are having conversations with her to identify short-term and long-term needs,” Jaffrey Police Chief William Oswalt said Monday. “We will help her in any way we can.”
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.