BELMONT — A person speaking on behalf of the two families who lost their home in an early morning fire January 20 has requested a meeting between selectmen and members of the families.
A shouting match on the subject of whether or night the fire department's response was adequate punctuated last night's meeting of the Selectboard at the Corner Meeting House.
Marshall Ford, a relative of the Smith and Gilbert families, told selectmen that he was not satisfied with the response of the Fire Department and criticized what he said was an initial a lack of an ambulance at the scene
Ford said three people were hurt in the 2:15 a.m. blaze on Province Road, including a woman who broke her foot jumping from the deck, a girl who hurt her tailbone also while jumping from the deck and a woman who was wearing slippers and got frostbite. He also said one of the people who crawled through the cellar window to safety had cuts and burns on his or her back.
He alleged that it took Belmont firefighters a half-hour to get to the house and it was Laconia and Gilmanton firefighters who put out the fire.
"I didn't see professional firefighting," Ford said.
Ford was said he wanted to know how the Belmont Fire Department can respond more quickly to the Province Road section of town in the future and what other departments should be called for a building fire.
Fire Chief Dave Parenti was there to defend his unit.
He explained that the call came in a 2:16 a.m. and the two firefighters who were on duty that night responded at 2:18 a.m. He said they arrived at the house at 2:27 p.m. Laconia arrived on the scene about 30 seconds later.
Parenti said that a mutual aid building fire in that section of Belmont automatically gets Belmont and Laconia on the road. He said subsequent alarms — the lieutenant on duty called for a first alarm before he got there because he saw the smoke — brings Gilmanton and Tilton-Northfield as well as Gilford.
He also said it was only when the lieutenant arrived that he found one of the injured women in the driveway and Police Chief Mark Lewandowski, who lives nearby, was already attending her. She said she was "shaken up" and Lewandowski carried her to the firetruck where she would be warm and stayed with her.
The other people in the home had taken shelter in a nearby home, said Parenti, and when firefighters went to the home they were initially told everyone was alright.
He also said the fire dispatcher told firefighters everyone was out of the house but the callers didn't say that anyone was injured.
Ford agreed that the fire departments were told everyone was out of the home.
Parenti and Selectman Jon Pike has some initial disagreement about Belmont's choice of a water source for fighting the fire that night. Parenti said that on the way, his lieutenant looked at the pond on Leavitt Road to see if it was frozen.
He said there was also ice on a pond on Province Road and the decision to get water from Rogers Road was made.
Pike said that he owns the property on Province Road and there is a dry hydrant. He said firefighters have practiced on that dry hydrant. Parenti said the pond was frozen and Rogers Road provided the 40,000 to 60,000 gallons needed to save the garage and extinguish the house.
All totaled, there were 45 firefighters including 16 Belmont firefighters who were either full-time but off duty who responded or call firefighters. Parenti said the Belmont firefighters brought two more engines, and tanker and a rescue vehicle. He said the person who drove the rescue vehicle was not licenced to drive an ambulance and was not an EMT.
Parenti said when the incident commander realized there were injuries he called for an ambulance from Laconia. He said Franklin covered the Belmont station ambulance.
He also said that when firefighters were already at the scene, dispatch got a call saying the people from the nearby home called and asked for an ambulance. He said one woman refused ambulance transport and was taken by private car to the hospital. One firefighters was injured.
Parenti also said the lieutenant called for ambulance from Stewarts Ambulance — who automatically respond to a second alarm — and from Loudon but neither could send one.
After the shouting at last nights meeting got out of control, Pike, using his pen as a gavel, said "enough."
He agreed to sit down with the family and Parenti said he would be happy to attend the meeting as well.

GILFORD — Budget Committee member Philip "Pat" LaBonte is running for the Board of Fire Engineers. As of yesterday, LaBonte has not signed up for reelection to the town Budget Committee. The filing period closes on Thursday.
LaBonte, who has served Gilford in a number of capacities including a stint as a fire engineer, has recently become of of the staunchest critics of the department. His concerns have been centered around maintenance issues and what he believes to be a lack of regular maintenance and poor record keeping.
He and Budget Committee member Kevin Leandro led the charge last year when the Fire Engineers recommended buying an attack engine to replace Engine 4.
LaBonte and Leandro have extensive backgrounds in diesel engines and heavy trucks. Neither man is a former firefighter, though LaBonte is a former fire engineer.
The two successfully made the case to the voters and initially to the Board of Selectmen that Engine 4 could be repaired and likely better maintained, and voters at annual town meeting overwhelmingly voted down the engine replacement.
The Budget Committee split 6-to-6 and did not recommend buying a new fire truck. Acting on the information given to them by Leandro and LaBonte, selectmen voted 3-to-0 to not recommend the passage of the warrant article and it failed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the March annual town meeting ballot vote.
After it failed, members of the fire department took Engine 4 to Lakes Region Fire Apparatus in Tamworth for repairs — the most significant of which was to the pump.
Mechanics dissembled the pump and realized that not only were the insides not functioning properly but the pump-housing was damaged beyond repair. Added to the other needed repairs of a radiator, some cab mounts and some loose wiring and the new estimate to fix Engine 4 went to somewhere between $40,000 and $70,000 — depending on who was asked.
Lakes Region Fire Apparatus mechanics also notified Chief Steve Carrier that the brakes were unsafe and Engine 4 was taken out of service and towed back to Gilford.
Selectmen and Fire Engineers petitioned the Belknap County Superior Court for a special town meeting to raise the money for a replacement engine. The measure failed by 10 votes.
In the interim, selectmen decided to let the Department of Public Works fix what it could on Engine 4, including the brakes that required it be taken out of service, and send it to Lakes Region Fire Apparatus for the pump repairs. To date, the town has spent about $70,000 — according to Selectman John O'Brien — on repairs to Engine 4 but that dollar amount includes the nearly 570 man-hours put in at the Department of Public Works garage.
On Friday Engine 4 was towed to Tamworth to continue repair work, but, at the same time, Engine 2 needed to be towed to Repair Service of New England after a sensor failed in the transmission.
Chief Steve Carrier said Engine 2 was due back yesterday afternoon, and, at for at least one day, the town's fire department operated without a front line attack engine.
Meanwhile, Leandro has responded to local media articles by saying in an e-mail to selectmen that he made available to the media, that the earliest the town would have had a new Engine was March of 2013 so the exposure to possibly having no front line coverage existed all along.
Leandro also said that he and LaBonte took their creepers into the fire station last week and noticed an air leak on the primary tanker. He also contended that Engine 2 had a speed sensor problem that could have been replace at the fire station and that fire officials should not have given permission for the tow company to disconnect the rear U-joint and use a chain to tow Engine 2 to Glendale.
Incumbent Fire Engineer Phil Brouillard said he wasn't sure yesterday if he would run for a 7th term. Brouillard has been a fire engineer for 18 years.

BRISTOL —  Police Chief Michael Lewis said yesterday that he does not anticipate filing charges in connection with the head-on collision on Route 104 that took the life of a Danbury woman late on Wednesday afternoon.
Susan Fullerton, 55, died when the Ford sedan she was driving eastbound near the Homestead Restaurant was struck by an oncoming Chevrolet sport utility vehicle driven by Michael Lemieux, 18, of Bristol. Fullerton was alone at the time. Lemieux escaped without serious injury.
Lewis said that the road was clear of debris at the time of the accident. Although autopsies of both vehicles are not complete, he said that neither was found to have a defect sufficient to have contributed to the collision. Nor, Lewis said, was there any evidence that either driver was impaired or traveling at an excessive speed.
Lewis said that the collision occurred at about 3:45 p.m. when westbound motorists face the glare of the late afternoon sun and suggested Lemieux may have been blinded. He said that that accident reconstruction team video taped the scene during the time frame of the accident the next day to capture the conditions in which it took place.