Bob and Judy Bitterli are well-known and well-liked in Francestown, both as tireless town volunteers and as owners of Bob’s Chocolate Café, which they opened partly because people in town kept saying “You should open a café in your barn!”
Over the past three years, several people in Francestown nominated Bob Bitterli for “Hometown Hero”, particularly because of his work revitalizing the Recreation Department. I was working on Bob’s “Hometown Hero” profile when I learned the Bitterli’s house, the historic 250-year-old Levi Woodbury estate, had been destroyed by fire.
“The firefighters are the real ‘hometown heroes,’ ” Bitterli said. “What they did, standing out there in the cold for 12 hours in the ice and snow and freezing cold–they’re the ones who should be recognized.”
Firefighters from 16 towns battled the house fire for 13 1/2 hours during the Jan. 26 snowstorm. Francestown’s firefighters were there the entire time, until the Jaffrey Fire Department came to relieve them at 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
“The Francestown Fire Department was here starting at 1:03 in the afternoon, and they fought the fire for the rest of the night,” Bitterli said. “They would come in the barn and they were just frozen solid; they were literally sheets of ice. They would come in just to thaw out for a few minutes and get a health check from the EMTs, and if they were cleared, they went right back on the fire line. It was -16 degrees with the windchill, they were getting frostbite handling the hoses, with the water turning to ice as soon as it hit the house.”
The Bitterlis say they are beyond grateful for the kindness of their neighbors, the town, and the volunteer Fire Auxiliary, especially the Dishong family, who are neighbors up the street.
“The town just turned out immediately. People came with hot soup, with coffee, power bars, food and water for the firefighters. They brought things hot, because there was no power or water in the barn,” Bitterli said.
The family was home on Sunday afternoon when their ADT smoke alarm went off.
“I had just been about to walk over to the barn to start making chocolate. Thank heaven I was still home, or I might not have been able to get us all out,” Bitterli said.
As soon as he heard the smoke alarm go off in the basement tavern room, where the family had a fire going in the fireplace, he ran to see what was happening.
“I was watching TV, and our fire alarm went off. I went to the door to the basement tavern, where we have a big fireplace, and I saw a fireball in the one of the chairs. I ran and got the fire extinguisher from the kitchen, but by then, the fire had already gone from the chair to halfway up the steps,” he said. “Then I just yelled that we had to get out.”
The tavern room in the Bitterlis’ basement dated back 250 years, to when the Levi Woodbury home served as a tavern for travelers on the Second New Hampshire Turnpike. The basement had original bare wood walls, and Bitterli says they must have just gone up instantly.
“The contributing factor to this was that the house was 250 years old. The walls didn’t have plaster, just old wood. It was very old, very dry wood. It had been drying out for 250 years,” he said. “Some of those walls were literally one sheet of wood, because they folded up into the ceiling to make the ballroom.”
Bitterli ran to get his 91-year-old mother-in-law, Lucy, out of her separate suite in the back of the house.
“By the time I got Lucy up and about, the fire was in the kitchen, and Judy was on the other side of the flames,” Bitterli said.
Bitterli led his mother-in-law back into her suite and out the back door.
“We never use that door, and unfortunately, we had stuff piled up there, so I had to dig through it and move it before we could get out,” Bitterli said. “My mother-in-law kept saying ‘Don’t rush me!'”
Meanwhile, Judy Bitterli escaped through the front door.
“All this happened in 60 seconds,” Judy said. “We had to run. The flames were right behind us.”
As the Bitterlis and their dog Levi got the out of the house and headed for the barn, the windows blew out of house.
“The windows were exploding as we were walking past,” Judy said. “First the kitchen windows went, and then the next two windows blew out, and the flames were lapping at the second floor.”
As the family was hurrying to the barn just a few hundred feet away, a man in a pickup stopped and called 911.
The Bitterlis’ alarm company then called to see if there were any people in the house, and let the Francesown Fire Department know everyone was safely out.
Francestown firefighters were on the scene in six minutes.
Both Bitterlis said they knew immediately their home could not be saved.
“It was really intense sitting in the barn all that time and looking at the house. There were flames shooting out the back and the front,” Judy said. “We knew right away there was no chance they could save it.”
Bob says he said to Francestown Fire Chief Larry Kullgren, who was first on the scene, “Forget the house, just try to save my neighbors.”
“No one in the world could have saved the house,” Bitterli said. “At that point, they were working to save the town.”
For 12 hours, the firefighters fought to keep the fire in control to prevent the explosion of a 500-gallon underground propane tank, and to prevent the 500 pounds of lithium batteries connected to the home’s solar panels from igniting.
“It was just a massive, massive fire,” Bitterli said.
The Levi Woodbury house, the birthplace of a former governor of New Hamphsire, is in the middle of Francestown, across from the Town Hall and the Old Meeting House, and a stone’s throw from other historic homes. The house, the fourth-oldest in Francestown, dated to 1787 and was on the National Register of Historic Places.
Judy Bitterli says the home’s ADT alarm system saved their lives. Despite the fact that they have lost everything except the clothes on their backs, the Bitterlis are grateful.
“It’s one day at a time,” she said. “We have the kindness of neighbors, we are staying at a neighbor’s house, we have food, shelter and clothing. People have been taking care of our dog, Levi; he’s been staying with different playmates. People have given us so much clothing, and when we’re done with it, we will donate it back to others who have similar needs.”
The Bitterlis plan to rebuild their house, keeping the exterior exactly as it was.
“It’s such a mainstay in the town, with so much historical significance–when you drive into town, it’s the first thing you see. We want to give the community the comfort of knowing the house is still there, to preserve the history of Levi Woodbury and have that for the the town,” Judy Bitterli said.
The couple plans to redesign the interior, including the addition of a sprinkler system.
They also hope to reopen the Chocolate Café in three weeks or so.
“The power and the water for the shop all came from the house, so that is something we have to figure out,” Bitterli said. “Eversource is going to run a line for the power, but it may take a little more time to figure out the water.”
The Bitterlis have started a GoFundMe to benefit the Francestown Fire Department, which, like all local fire departments, relies on fundraisers and donations to provide everything the department needs which isn’t covered under the town budget.
“This is not a fundraiser for us,” Bitterli said. “We have good insurance; no one was hurt, and we’ll be fine. But these volunteers, what they did for us, what all these fire departments do for their communities—that’s who we need to thank. They are the real heroes. We’re starting with Francestown, but eventually we want to do something for evry fire department that was here–all 16 towns. We can just never thank them enough.”
To contribute to the Francestown Fire Department GoFundMe, go to:
www.gofundme.com/f/support-francestowns-and-neighbobrave-volunteer-firefighter, or consider making a donation to your own fire department.
