A house fire displaced nine people Wednesday afternoon, ripping through a home on Old Cathedral Road.
“It went up like lightning,” said resident Shaun Dorrington, one of two family members home when the fire started. The house is owned by his mother-in-law, Cheryl Preston.
The house is split into a main home and an in-law apartment. Dorrington said he was alerted to the fire by his sister-in-law.
“She yelled ‘fire,’ and I got on and called 911,” he said. “When we went out, there was fire everywhere.”
Rindge Fire Chief Bob Faas said the fire started at the back exterior of the house, broke through to the interior and spread to the roof. Faas was first to arrive on the scene and said he immediately observed heavy smoke coming from the back of the house.
Dorrington said the fire spread quickly.
“You could feel the heat,” he said. “It started in the back and just went that way and chafed the whole attic. It took that whole attic space, that’s how fast it can move.”
Dorrington said he attempted to fight the fire with a garden hose but said it did little good. His sister-in-law was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation; Dorrington said she was doing well by the time crews cleared the scene.
Faas said no one else, including firefighters, was injured while combating the blaze.
The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the family with immediate housing needs. Dorrington said the family will likely rely on a hotel while looking at rebuilding.
“It’s a tough road ahead,” he said.
Faas said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.