No one hurt in Amherst house fire

AMHERST – No one was injured Thursday in a fire that rendered a home on Winterberry Drive uninhabitable.

Fire Chief Rick Todd said firefighters encountered heavy fire in a front bedroom on the second floor of 2 Winterberry Drive.

“The fire burned a hole right through the bedroom floor,” said Todd.

Neighbors identified the homeowners as Deb and Jay Tully.

The Tullys were not home and neither were their pets, a dog and a guinea pig, said neighbor Terry Price.

Asplundh Tree Service workers Eddie Murphy, of Milford, and Al Fautex, of Keene, reported the fire at around 10:35 a.m.

“I’m glad nobody got hurt,” said Fautex.

Winterberry Lane is a cul-de-sac off Old Mail Road, in the northern part of town.

Murphy said he and Fautex were dealing with downed trees from the ice storm when they noticed the smoke.

Price said the neighborhood lost power last Thursday and had it restored Wednesday.

The cause of the fire is was under investigation as of Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters from Amherst, Bedford, Merrimack and Mont Vernon responded.

This is the second serious house fire that Amherst firefighters fought in the past day. On Wednesday night, an apparent electrical fire in the basement of 14 Oak Hill Drive left a family temporarily homeless.

Although Todd could not say what caused the Winterberry Drive fire, he urged people to be careful when using alternative heat sources. He said if you run a generator, keep it 10 feet from the house with the exhaust pointed away.

Carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors are also a must, said Todd, whose department has responded to several CO calls in the past few days.