Wood stove ashes on the porch started Meredith fire

MEREDITH — Mother, son and pets escaped without injury when fire, sparked by smoldering ashes from a wood stove, severely damaged a home at 53 Winona Road on Sunday morning.

Fire Chief Ken Jones said the ashes were placed in a combustible container on the porch at the rear of the saltbox, where the fire started. The homeowner Carrie Chase and her young son rounded up their pets — a rabbit, guinea pig, dog and cat with kittens — and reached safety ahead of fire and smoke rushing through the kitchen door as it fell to the flames and heat.

Minutes after the initial 911 call at 8:56 a.m. Jones sounded a first alarm as flame was showing from the back of the two-and-one-half story home. He said that firefighters from Meredith, Holderness, Center Harbor and Moultonborough arrived to find that fire and smoke on the first floor had climbed the walls of the kitchen into the attic and roof above at the rear of the building.

Jones said that although firefighters soon quelled the fire, using approximately 2,000 gallons of water, the damage was severe. "There was a lot of damage to the roof and attic and smoke and water damage pretty much throughtout," he said, estimating the cost of the fire at $100,000 to the home itself and another $30,000 to its contents.

Chase, Jones said, smelt a strange odor, but only discovered the fire when she saw smoke outside the kitchen window and flames on the back porch, just before the smoke detectors sounded.

Jones reminded residents heating with wood stoves to take care when removing ashes and always to put ashes in a covered metal container to ensure they do not ignite.