WHITEFIELD — Tuesday afternoon, Pam Fenderson lay down to rest after washing the dishes. Her kids had left a half hour earlier and she wanted to relax.
Within five minutes, smoke detectors in her family’s Hilton Road farmhouse sounded their alarms, a sound that saved Fenderson’s life, she said.
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“I would have died without them. I really think I would have,” Fenderson said Wednesday, tearing up as she recalled the fire that leveled her family’s home and barn the day before.
The fire started in the barn, where hay was stored for the family’s beef cattle, and it spread to the upstairs of the connected house, said Whitefield Fire Chief Scott Higgins.
Firefighting crews from Whitefield and Jefferson were back Wednesday, excavating hay that had fallen in the basement of the barn and spraying what was left to put out hotspots. An investigator from the Office of State Fire Marshal was also on the scene Wednesday.
Multiple fire departments from the area responded to the fire reported around 4 p.m. Tuesday and cleared for the first time around 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., Higgins said. Crews returned twice overnight and twice Wednesday because the hay kept reigniting, he said.
It was the fourth fire that many of the volunteer departments faced in the past week.
Another Whitefield fire during the Jan. 27 snowstorm left a family of 10 homeless, and many of the same firefighters also battled fires Sunday and Monday in the nearby towns of Somerville and Jefferson.
“We need a break,” Higgins said. “Not just saying Whitefield. All of our neighboring communities in the area are just getting taxed.”
He said Tuesday’s fire was particularly difficult because not only were the crews fatigued, but the cold temperatures kept freezing the trucks and the lines.
The blaze destroyed the back third of the farmhouse and left only the basement of the barn intact. No one was hurt and all the cattle escaped unscathed, Fenderson said.
Her husband, Mark Fenderson, 55, was born and raised in the house, she said. Their two children, Olivia, 17, and Adam, 16, also grew up in the house, she said.
The family is staying at their neighbors’ house across the street, and people have begun dropping off clothes and supplies for the family.
By Wednesday afternoon, a couch at Judy and Gerry Muldovan’s home, where the Fendersons are staying, was covered in stacks and bags of clothes.
“I am overwhelmed with the beauty I see in people,” Pam Fenderson said. “You know, things are awful in this world, so you think, ‘Oh, all is lost.’ And then you see things like this happen. You just see the caring and support that is there.”
Pam Fenderson, 46, said there have been offers for housing, but nothing has come to fruition yet. The family had insurance on the structure and farm equipment, but not on their belongings in the home, she said.
The support so far from the community has been wonderful, she said.
“My devout Christian faith, the support of the community is what’s holding me up,” she said.
Her son, Adam, lost his cell phone in the fire, so it’s been difficult staying in touch, she said. Other than that, Pam Fenderson said she couldn’t think of other things the family needs besides new furniture eventually.
Her niece set up a GoFundMe.com page to raise money for the family, and her sister, Sandra Webber, can be reached at 485-1888 if people want to help in other ways.
Pam Fenderson said the community seems to be mourning just as much because the house had stood on the corner of Routes 126 and 218 for more than a century.
“The community is in shock because it’s a piece of town,” she said. “I just think they’ve suffered a loss too.”
Paul Koenig — 621-5663
Twitter: @paul_koenig
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