Fire Destroys Oxford Home

Fred Weller could only watch in disbelief as the house he's called home for nearly 50 years nearly burned to the ground Friday afternoon.

Weller, 71, stared at firefighters pouring water on his ranch-style home and tried to think of material items that are probably lost in the rubble at 17-5 Moose Hill Road so he can tell his insurance agency what's gone. There are irreplaceable family gems like photographs from a trip to Germany and his mother's cherished Hummel figurines that can never be replaced. And there are those that money can buy back, such as his new Suburu Legacy that was parked in the garage.

"I could never figure out all the stuff that's in there," he said. "They're gone (and the house is a total loss) but those are just possessions. ...What's important is that nobody was injured."

Weller, who lives alone, was the only person inside the house when the fire broke out just after 12:30 p.m., he said. He heard a fire alarm, saw smoke and tried to call 911, but the phones didn't appear to be working, he said. He ran outside and tried to move his John Deere tractor that he'd been using shortly before the fire broke out, but he nearly burned his hands because the fire had caused the tractor to turn hot, he said. Weller had no choice but to leave with nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

His neighbor, Keith Strubbe, said he smelled smoke and looked toward Weller's 47-year-old house, where he saw Weller trying to move the tractor with flames visible just behind him. Strubbe said he yelled for his brother to call 911.

Firefighters arrived within about 10 minutes, but Weller said it appeared to be a lifetime; he felt helpless.

When volunteer fire crews from Oxford and Seymour arrived, they saw the home almost fully engulfed and flames shooting out of the garage, said Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier. Firefighters began aggressively attacking the interior of the home, but fire was causing the roof to fall down, and the ceiling and floors were weakening; firefighters were called out of the house for safety reasons, Pelletier told reporters on scene.

Because of clutter within the home, firefighters could not get to the end of the house to put out flames, he said. Firefighters then shifted to an exterior attack and shot water down onto the house from a ladder high above the roof.

One firefighter sustained an ankle sprain after tripping over something on the outside of the house, Pelletier said. Nobody else was injured.

The fire, which appears to have started in a garage, remains under investigation.

Weller, who has never married and has no children, said he will probably rebuild. In the meantime, he's not going too far. He will stay with his sister, who lives directly across the street. 

Editor's Note: Our video of Chief Pelletier discussing the fire did not come out due to technical difficulties. However, the Valley Independent Sentinel took a good video. Click here to see it.