PLYMOUTH, Connecticut — About a dozen people are displaced after a midday fire in the Terryville neighborhood of Plymouth June 24.
Fire officials said the flames started in an apartment unit on Main Street above the Corner Collective Store. That’s the same building that houses Terryville Pizza, which was also impacted.
Pieces of firewall and children’s toys are all that remains of the Camachio family apartment. Claudio Camachio said his wife and kids barely escaped with their lives.
“I don't have no words because I'm in a situation where I got to start from scratch, basically, you know, and it's hard when you have five kids you know, it's not easy when you lose everything that you work for all throughout your life that you save the memories and pictures all that stuff you know all that is gone,” Camachio said.
His family got out with minimal injury but several of his pets, including a dog, multiple birds, and others, could not be saved.
“We lost all our animals,” he said. “My son burned his hands trying to get the dog out the cage to unlock it, man unfortunately he couldn't because too much smoke and he started coughing our spit in our black so he couldn't even get the dog out.”
Camachio said he has lived on the second floor of the mixed-use building on Main Street for the past 16 years. He noted the flames appeared to be coming from an electrical outlet in his living room.
“We have been having electrical issues and we didn't tell the landlord about it because every time we try to plug in something, something always goes off, so they knew about it and we think it had to do with some electrical issue,” Camachio said.
As the official cause of the fire remains under investigation, the American Red Cross has been called in to help those who are without a home. It could be several weeks before they can go inside and gather what’s left of their belongings.
Not only does the building contain three apartment units, but also multiple businesses, including Terryville Pizza, whose owner vows to reopen once it’s safe enough to do so.
“It's very shocking for me,” Kamaljit Singh, Terryville Pizza owner said. “It's part of life though, part of business.”
Firefighters said they were met with several challenges when responding to this two-alarm fire, from age of the building to the hoarding issues they encountered.
"It's an older building built in the 1800s and has been added onto several times,” Terryville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mark Sekorski said. “There was also a hoarding issue in there. It was loaded with all kinds of stuff and it was very hard to maneuver.”
As the clean up gets underway, Sekorski has this message to the community.
“The lesson to the public is you have to leave access for us to rescue you. Even though you don't own the building, treat it like your own home and keep it clean,” Sekorski said.
A section of Rt. 6 that was closed for much of the day in Plymouth has since reopened to traffic.
Bridgette Bjorlo is an anchor/reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at bbjorlo@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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