BRANFORD, Conn. — A Branford man and his daughter are counting their lucky stars after escaping from their burning home at 18 Totoket Rd. Tuesday night.
Both were home at the time of the incident, sitting on their back deck when suddenly, they smelt smoke.
"I said, 'Oh, let me get up and see what's going on,'" said Donald Welch, the homeowner. "I got into the hallway and there's one room in the front of the house and I looked in there and there's a huge fire in there."
Welch ran to grab the fire extinguisher, but by the time he got back upstairs, the whole room was filled with flames.
“I called to my daughter who was still on the porch saying, we got to get out of this house now. But, the fire reached into the hallway and she couldn’t get out," Welch said.
As a contractor, Welch had a tall ladder nearby and used it to get his daughter down. Soon, the 911 center was inundated with calls from the neighborhood. Those calls came in just after 6 p.m.
"The initial reports were that somebody was still inside the building. Crews got on the scene and encountered heavy fire on the second floor. The fire was self-venting out of the windows on their arrival," said Robert Dobuzinsky, Fire Marshal with the Branford Fire Department.
Soon, firefighters realized nobody was in the house, and went on defense. It took them about an hour and a half to knock it down.
Welch did suffer from minor burns to his face and was evaluated by medical personnel on scene. He said he's doing okay now and trying to remain positive.
"For what it was, it couldn’t have worked out better. You know, it’s a terrible thing that happened and everything but everything was in line and everything’s in place and it’s just going to take me about a year to get back to where I was," Welch said.
Neighbors are also thankful everyone made it out safely. The incident put things into perspective for them.
“Just the fleetingness of life itself, that anything can happen at any time," said Cindy Ewing, who lives next door.
Welch plans to rebuild the home, which has been in his family for multiple generations since the early 1800s. About 30 years ago, Welch restored the inside of the home.
“It’s been in the family, we’ve always owned it. And now, it’s time to fix it up again," Welch said.
For now, the home has been deemed uninhabitable by the Town of Branford building official. Welch said he has plans to stay somewhere else for now.
The cause and origin of the fire are still under investigation.
However, Dobuzinsky said whenever there's a fire, it's a good reminder to take the proper safety precautions in your own home.
"Something to take away from really any fire, whether there are smoke detectors present or not, smoke detectors help out in fires. They're required in single-family homes. They're required in multi-family homes by code. We like to tell people to have one in each bedroom. Have them in the common areas and in the basement. Anywhere that you can think of, you should have a smoke alarm on all levels," Dobuzinsky said.
Dobuzinsky also said it's a good idea to sleep with the bedroom doors closed, because a well-built door would buy you time to escape in case of a fire.
Welch is taking home a few lessons from this incident, too. He said everyone should have an escape plan.
"Go to a section of your house and stand there and say, 'Okay, the house is on fire, how can I get out?' So you don't have to think about it or get caught or something like that. My daughter was caught on the roof I'm lucky I had a ladder but if I didn't, it could have been a little more dangerous," Welch said. "Because it spreads fast. It's bad. You're in trouble really quick so you have to be able to do things quickly to get out of there."
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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