Fire Destroys Church Street Apartment

This three-apartment house on Church Street in Randolph, owned by Central Vermont Community Action, Corp. was a total loss in a nighttime fire last Friday. Nobody was hurt. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Nine people were left homeless by a late-night fire Friday that destroyed a rambling, three-apartment building on Church Street in Randolph village.

Only four of the nine residents were in the building that night. Some were sleeping in the second-floor bedrooms, but all safely escaped the fire. Randolph Village Fire Chief Jay Collette reported this week that some of the four had to exit through ground-floor windows, as flames had blocked the rear door, near to where the fire started.

Smoke detectors were sounding when he arrived, Collette added, but residents later said it was the sound of loud explosions "that drove most up and out of their beds."

Collette said the fire, ruled as accidental, started in an enclosed porch at the rear of the building. The precise cause is not known. The explosions heard, he said, were likely paint cans, or the like, exploding due to heat, rather than the cause of the blaze.

The 1894 building, owned by Central Vermont Community Action, had been reroofed and remodeled multiple times. It was a difficult fire to suppress, according to Collette, because flames worked into those various layers. Firefighters spent 15 hours on scene, he said.

Kristen Gage, who lives across the street from the apartment building, said her husband was also awakened just before midnight by sounds of "an explosion and screaming." The Gages called 911 and hurried over to offer what help they could.

It was quickly confirmed that everyone who lived in the back apartments had exited the building, but there was considerable concern about the young family who lived in the front apartment.

The lights were on and the door locked, according to Randolph police Sgt. David Leighton. Leighton reported that he "announced himself" and kicked open the door, and confirmed no one was at home.

It turned out that Kai and Jason Pierson and their 2-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, had driven themselves to the birthing center at Gifford Medical Center a few hours earlier. Kai, pregnant with the couple’s second child, had gone into labor.

She was in the midst of "pretty intense, pretty quick" labor pains, at about 2:30 a.m., when neighbors tracked them down at the hospital, Kai reported this week.

The contractions stopped, due to "all the anxiety and adrenalin," she reported Tuesday. Pierson, who spoke to The Herald from the West Lebanon, N.H. motel where the family was temporarily staying, said doctors anticipate that labor will restart in the next week.

Neighbors said other residents who were in the building that night were Chris King and her young grandson, and Marlena White and her daughter.

Explosive Start

Fire Chief Collette arrived on scene about four minutes after receiving the 11:53 p.m. call, and found the southeast corner of the building already "pretty well involved with heavy flames." Three windows on that corner, two on the first floor and one upstairs, had already blown out, and flames were wrapping around the exterior of the building, he said.

All three Randolph fire departments arrived quickly on scene, and the long battle to gain control of the stubborn fire began.

Kristen Gage and her husband were among those who watched the effort for hours: "The firemen would roll back a section roof, spray water in, and as soon as they’d spray one spot, fire would flare up in another," she said.

One of the hazards of the fire, according to Collette, was the toxic smoke billowing off the vinyl siding, the remainders of which now hang down like melted drapes.

Once firefighters gained control of the fire, around 4 a.m., personnel were able to ferry out salvageable items from the apartments. Losses were extensive, Chief Collette said, with the entire second floor either burned or heavily damaged by smoke and water. The southeast apartment sustained the worst damage, he said.

Collette said he sent home the Center and East departments at 8 a.m., and Randolph Village stayed on until 3 p.m. RVFD volunteers had just arrived home and settled to rest, if they could, when they were pulled out again, this time for a DHART landing at Gifford Medical Center. (See story on stabbing.)

Kai Pierson extended her thanks this week to the firefighters, who were able to pull out the baby playpen she and her husband had just bought, and a good amount of clothing for her toddler and the new baby.

"Our big furniture is completely gone," she said, and she and her husband also lost all of their clothing.

The Piersons had no renters’ insurance, she said.

The Herald was not able to contact the other two families living in the apartment building.

Support

Help for the families got underway before firemen left the scene.

Kristen Gage said she sent out an email to 25 friends at 8 a.m. Saturday, "and all of a sudden I was being contacted by people I had never met."

Gage coordinated donations of items needed in the immediate aftermath of the fire. She suggested this week that would-be donors to wait until the families can figure out where they are going and what they need.

The American Red Cross sent a team that provided vouchers for clothing and other items to meet the emergency needs of the fire victims.

Response coordinator for this fire, Cheri Lundblad of Moretown, noted that all of the apartment’s residents were put up by the Fireside Inn in West Lebanon for three nights.

She said Red Cross volunteers on site assisted the families with their medical needs, and spent hours with those displaced by the fire, offering "compassion care."

Rob Caron of South Royalton has been property manager of the Church Street apartment building since 1993, and CVCAC owned the building prior to then, he said.

The building had been rehabbed several times, and in the last few years had gotten replacement windows, a new heating system, new siding and new kitchens.

Some Things Turn

Caron said CVCAC plans to tear down the charred remains as soon as possible. No decision has yet been made on whether to rebuild, which was insured, he added.

Last Friday’s fire came less than three months after the July 9 fire that destroyed another Randolph Village home, just a few yards away from the site of last Friday’s fire.

Ed and Millie Green and their two sons lost almost everything in that fire, also ruled accidental. The burnt-out remains of their South Pleasant Street home were torn down, and work proceeded quickly on a new, single-story home.

The Greens, who had been living, since the fire, in a camper on their village lot, moved into their new home this past weekend.