Blaze destroys Freeport house that was being repaired after a fire 4 months ago - TribLIVE

A Freeport home that caught fire in September and was undergoing renovations was destroyed early Sunday when another fire broke out.

Firefighters were called to a home at 165 Washington St. shortly after 4 a.m.

When they arrived, they found the house fully engulfed.

“The fire was already through the roof,” Freeport fire Chief Thomas C. Sweeny Jr. said. “Pretty much the whole main floor … was burning.”

Sweeny said because of the extent of the fire, crews opted to not go inside to fight it. It took about an hour to knock down from the outside.

The house is a total loss, according to Sweeny.

“There’s absolutely no roof left at all, and the first floor is pretty much a complete burnout,” he said. “The foundation’s still there, but there’s really no structure on top of the foundation.”

Sean McCalmont, who lives near the house, said he and his wife, Sandy, were asleep when the fire started.

He said when his wife got up to use the bathroom, she noticed an orange glow coming from the house.

“The next thing you know, she’s saying, ‘The house next door house is on fire,’” McCalmont said. “I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute — the house was already on fire.’”

McCalmont called 911 and was informed that someone else had called and firefighters were on their way.

“You could tell it had probably been burning for a while because the center of the roof was gone, collapsing in,” McCalmont said.

McCalmont went outside to assess the situation and helped firefighters when they arrived.

“There were multiple departments here, too. When the first fire truck showed up, I think there were only two or three guys with it, so I was helping them pull hose and get hoses charged up and helping them get their gear on and things,” McCalmont said.

“I don’t know anything about fighting fires. I was just trying to help the best I could.”

The house had been undergoing renovations after catching fire Sept. 9, McCalmont said.

No one was living there Sunday. It had been unoccupied since the September fire, McCalmont said.

The September fire caused $20,000 to $25,000 in damage, but firefighters were able to limit it to a single room in the one-story house chiefly because all the interior doors were closed.

“I feel really bad for them,” McCalmont said. “It got burnt and damaged before, and now they’re trying to get it fixed back up. And now it’s just about completely gone.

“There’s no roof on it at all, over the main part of the house. All the windows are gone. Walls are gone. Everything.”

Sweeny said his fire department was called out to the September fire, too.

“It’s tough to see,” he said.

No one was injured in Sunday’s fire. The cause wasn’t yet determined. Sweeny said that will be up to a state police fire marshal.

“It’s going to be investigated,” Sweeny said. “It’s hard to say exactly what was the cause.”

McCalmont gave kudos to the firefighters for their quick response.

“The fire departments did very well,” he said. “They came in, got it knocked down quick and had it under control in no time.”

Madasyn Lee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at [email protected], 724-226-4702 or via Twitter.

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Blaze destroys Freeport house that was being repaired after a fire 4 months ago - TribLIVE

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