One firefighter injured in Campton fire that drew help from 21 companies

CAMPTON — A firefighter and a tenant of a condominium were hospitalized with injuries sustained in a large fire on Thursday. The fire heavily damaged multiple units, displacing four people.

Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue received a call at 9:11 a.m. on Sept. 4, about a fire at 27 Condo Road, and Chief Dan Defosses said the building had long been on he and his staff’s radar as problematic if a fire broke out. Between being prepared and having ample assistance from more than 40 firefighters across 21 departments, the fire was knocked down with the structure still intact. While there were two injuries, he said it certainly could have been a lot worse.

“We do spend quite a bit of time training and targeting buildings that we know might be an issue,” Defosses said. “Many times during my career, even over lunch, we have discussed what we would do if that building caught fire.”

Defosses said the building is fairly old, and much of the material is “rust on pine,” commonly used in the ‘70s and ‘80s to give a rustic feel. The building also pre-dated any sprinkler and alarm standards, and thus, were unequipped with either.

The department was uncharacteristically busy with 10 calls over a 24-hour period. Instead of the two full-time personnel and himself like a usual Thursday, there was a large firefighter presence at the station.

“When it came in, we had just finished a significant medical call in Thornton, and then a horse was stuck in the mud at a farm in Campton,” Defosses said. “So, we had a lot of people at the station which helped tremendously.”

Defosses immediately called for reinforcements, knowing the fire could be a tough one to knock down.

“I knew what it was and that it was an issue, so I called second alarm because some of the towns are 30 minutes or more away,” Defosses. “When I got to the scene, there was a good amount of smoke and fire on the third and fourth floor. We could see smoke coming out of the front and a lot of fire coming from the rear.”

A pond a quarter-mile away was used to draw water. One engine malfunctioned initially trying to retrieve water from the pond, and Woodstock Fire Department stepped in to help. Defosses said they had just trained with Woodstock only 12 hours earlier on how to set up water supplies.

The building has four floors with 10 units, with a parking area underneath. There was heavy fire in Unit 3, which spread to units 1 and 5, and this led Defosses to call for additional companies at 9:20 a.m.

With 15 departments now called in for assistance, and an ambulance on the scene already, Defosses said they were in good shape to fight the blaze.

Campton Police Chief Kevin Foss notified Defosses he had gone door-to-door, and everyone was out of the building. He also assisted a tenant out of the building with burn injuries, and in a rare occurrence, Foss drove the victim to Speare Memorial Hospital in the ambulance himself.

“If there was a highway guy there, we would have asked them to do something to help,” Foss said. “We needed like 100 people there. We needed all the help we could get.”

Defosses said the patient was transported to a Boston hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Firefighters pulled the line up to the second floor and made their way down the hallway, extinguishing the fire. As crews attempted to enter an apartment and make their way to the third floor where the fire originated, a firefighter had one leg fall through the floor up to his waist at the base of the stairway.

“Luckily it was just one foot, because that is what stopped him from going completely through,” Defosses said. “If he had fallen through the floor, it is about 12 to 15 feet onto concrete. He would have been really hurt, and probably taken in a helicopter.”

With zero visibility and firefighters handling heavy gear in a stressful scenario, a “mayday” was declared, notifying everyone there was an emergency on the scene. Defosses said the firefighter was briefly trapped, and Plymouth Deputy Fire Chief Dan Doucette and a Campton-Thornton firefighter helped him out of the floor and out of the building.

A second ambulance was already on its way, and the firefighter was swiftly taken to Speare, where he was evaluated with non-life-threatening injuries. Defosses said the firefighter was released from the hospital within several hours, and is expected to be back to work in about a week.

Even more assistance was requested at 10:01 a.m., which brought in “every department from Franconia Notch to Tilton.” Whether a department was on scene or covering a station, they were there to assist.

Departments at the scene included Ashland, Bridgewater, Bristol, Center Harbor, Hebron, Holderness, Meredith, Lincoln, Lin-Wood EMS, New Hampton, Plymouth, Rumney, Sanbornton, Tilton-Northfield, Warren, Waterville Valley, Wentworth, Woodstock and Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid.

Alexandria and Meredith engines, as well as Sanbornton Ambulance, covered Campton Station 1. Laconia Fire covered Meredith, Canaan covered Rumney, Orford covered Wentworth, and Sandwich covered Center Harbor.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but Defosses does not believe it was suspicious. He said it appears to have originated in the kitchen of Unit 3, but with all the damage it may be difficult to find the root cause. He said much of the building sustained smoke, water and heat damage, and there are at least four units which are probably unlivable.

The fire was ultimately knocked down around 6 p.m., and Defosses was thankful it was contained to the building. This was directly due to multi-department cooperation, and he said the tight knit group of firefighters around the state is always there to help one another.

“A building that size, with those difficulties, has a potential for large life loss,” Defosses said. “Just the sheer size alone. Some people say it takes a village to get things done, and in this case, it took a lot of villages. Without the hard work of our staff and everyone on the scene, it could have been a lot worse.”