|
|
|
Photo Kaimi Rose Lum
Firefighters quell flames at a Truro residence Thursday. |
|
Photo Kaimi Rose Lum
Smoke pours from a gable as a firefighter positions himself on the roof. |
|
Artist’s home ravaged by fire
Banner Daily Update Fri. Mar. 28
By Kaimi Rose Lum
BANNER STAFF
TRURO – Fire engulfed the home of artist Nancy Craig at 30 Town Hall Road yesterday afternoon, summoning firefighters from across the Lower Cape to battle the two-alarm blaze. The cause was not known late Thursday, but initial reports pointed to an electrical problem. Damage was extensive.
The house, an antique Cape at the end of a steep dirt road on Town Hall Hill, is not in the vicinity of any fire hydrants, so water was brought in by tanker trucks. Provincetown Engine No. 193 set up at the nearest hydrant, at Truro Central School, and provided water to the other firetrucks through a relay system. The fire was under control by about 4:45 p.m.
Craig, a widely esteemed portrait artist, feared that many of her paintings had been lost, but a number were able to be salvaged from the living room, including a portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright. Some works were stored in the garage next to the house, which was spared, and a few of her portraits are hanging on the walls of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum as part of an exhibit that began last month. The drawings Craig had completed in the last year were destroyed, however.
Craig discovered the fire when she and a friend returned to the house yesterday around 3:30 p.m. after running errands in Orleans. She believes it broke out in the kitchen, one side of which was a “wall of fire” when they arrived, her friend said.
Friends and neighbors gathered around the distraught Craig at a neighbor’s house to offer their support as firefighters trooped up and down the hill. The house was still standing when the blaze was put down but blackened gaps appeared in the siding and roof where the smoke had poured through.
Although the fire marshal will undertake an investigation of the incident, Truro Fire Capt. Dan Silva said at this point it looks like the cause of the fire was electrical. “It appeared to be a faulty appliance,” he said. “The kitchen was fully involved with extension into the second floor and the attic when we arrived.”
Craig told investigators she had left an electric heating pad on in the kitchen to start a batch of pepper seeds.
Silva expressed gratitude for the assistance Truro firefighters received from fire crews in Provincetown, Wellfleet, Eastham and Orleans.
|
New officers learn an uncommon beat
Missteps & mix-ups revealed at turbine hearing
Horseshoe crabs in the spotlight
Arson forum: investigators seek residents’ help
Tarantino this year’s Filmmaker on the Edge
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 27th, 2008