UPDATED: Damage to Dentist's Office Is Extensive [with VIDEO]

Denitst Michael S. McKay was upstairs watching television Sunday afternoon when he smelled smoke.

He said he went downstairs to his living room - which also doubles as the waiting room at 1536 Norwich-New London Turnpike (Route 32) - and discovered that the kindling he had been drying on the hearth of his woodstove had ignited. The room was filled with smoke.

He closed the doors and ran outside, and called the fire department. They arrived at the scene and were able to extinguish the fire quickly. Route 32 was closed in both directions.

McKay believes the fire was contained to the one room. He lives alone in the building, and has no pets.

At his home after the fire, McKay said he had thought that the damage had been contained to the waiting room. But Fire Marshal Ray Occhialini called the interior of the office "a total loss," and said that heat damage was extensive. McKay will not be able to open for a long time, Occhialini said.

Firefighters from Montville, Oakdale, East Great Plains and Mohegan fire departments responded, as did the Mohegan Tribal Fast Team.

McKay, who opened the office in April of 1976, had spent the weekend working at the Mission of Mercy dental clinic in Danbury, treating patients there for free. He is part of a group organizing a similar clinic for next year at Connecticut College.