Oak Bluffs and Tisbury firefighters responded to a call of a fully involved house fire just before 9 pm on Tuesday night at 115 Border Road. The narrow dirt road combined with the heat and humidity created difficult conditions for the more than 40 firefighters who battled the blaze in an accessory building used as a guest house.
No occupants were in either the main house or guest house at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries. Firefighters rescued a pet from the main house. A pet that belonged to the occupant of the guest house has not been found.
Tisbury Fire Chief John Schilling said Wednesday the accessory building is a total loss. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Assistant Fire Chief James Rogers will be the lead investigator on the case. Chief Schilling said they were waiting to hear back from the insurance company before proceeding. He said damage to the main house included burned exterior shingling and trim, and some smoke damage inside.
Currently there’s no power to the main house. Mr. Schilling said the electric company will restore power once an electrician and wiring company are satisfied that it is safe to do so.
The owner of the house, Jon Zeeman, said he had just moved to the property as he surveyed the scene on Wednesday.
“This says it all,” he said, pointing to the charred shell of the building. “Thank God nobody got hurt and the dogs are OK. I just moved here two weeks ago, so this is not the greatest welcome.”
He was very appreciative of the firefighters’ efforts.
“The firefighters were amazing,” Mr. Zeeman said. “I thank them, and my heart goes out to them and all the people that helped, and all the neighbors.”
He said there’s a lot of work to do to recover from the fire.
“The whole summer is going to be a giant cleanup of a giant mess,” he said. “I feel terrible for Rose, who was living there. She lost pretty much everything. But we’re lucky nobody got hurt.”
Rose Guerin, a friend of Mr. Zeeman’s, lived in the guest house. After the fire, a search was underway for Ms. Guerin’s missing dog, Boomer. He is a medium-size mixed-breed dog with black and tan marks. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Guerin said Boomer still had not been found. She did not want to comment on the fire.
Popping sounds
A witness renting the home next door said that flames erupted out of the wooden frame house, one lot back from the Lagoon, about 8:45 pm on Tuesday.
“I could hear popping, like fireworks, and assumed that was what it was,” Jan Rosenfeld, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., told The Times at the scene. “I went outside to investigate. I saw huge flames through the bushes and the house in front of me. The whole thing was on fire.”
Ms. Rosenfeld said that within minutes, the house was engulfed. And almost as quickly, she heard sirens. The firefighters had the fire under control within 15 minutes, she said.
Initially, a homeowner on the Oak Bluffs side of Lagoon Pond saw the flames and reported the fire as in Oak Bluffs. Fire Chief John Rose said that after he heard the initial call and the location, he asked that Tisbury also respond.
The first trucks had to navigate a narrow dirt road to reach the house set back in the woods. Hose lines ran for more than 1,600 feet from Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road to the front lines of the blaze.
“It was a long way in to get water,” Chief Schilling said as he helped direct the firefighting effort. “The fire was rolling on to the main structure when we got here. The guys did a good job.”
Smoke filled the air once the flames were extinguished.
As firefighters continued to hose down the charred remains of the building, the Island fire chiefs praised the cooperative effort and the turnout. Chief Schilling said the exact location did not matter.
“It’s great, the support that each town gives the other when we have a major event like this,” Chief Rose said, as he stood perspiring in the heat. “And it’s not just Oak Bluffs and Tisbury. Edgartown is covering Oak Bluffs right now because all my apparatus is tied up.”
“It was a tough location,” Chief Rose said.
West Tisbury firefighters also backed up Tisbury.
One firefighter was transported to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for observation due to symptoms associated with the heat.
Police closed off Edgartown–Vineyard haven Road for more than an hour.