BRANDON — A family of six was displaced when an early-morning blaze destroyed their two-story, single-family home at 6 Rossiter St. in Brandon on Tuesday morning.
Brandon Fire Chief Roman Wdowiak said that the initial call came in around 6:15 a.m. The Brandon and Pittsford fire departments rushed to Rossiter Street, where Wdowiak said they observed “heavy fire and smoke on the front and side of the building.”
Responders began fighting the fire with multiple hose lines around the house, but the structure’s wooden “balloon” frame enabled the fire to spread rapidly to the second floor, Wdowiak said.
Balloon framing was a popular 19th-century building technique that used long lumber, and was phased out of common use in the 1950s because the long pieces of lumber created fire lines.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze after around an hour and a half, and remained on the scene until just after noon, according to Wdowiak.
The Red Cross was called in to help the Mahoney family find temporary housing, as the remainder of the structure was clearly uninhabitable. All family members were unharmed, though a couple of pets perished in the fire.
Wdowiak said that a state investigator had ruled the fire, which originated in the family room on a closed porch, to be an accident, though the Brandon Fire Department was awaiting further details in the official report.