A man and a dog were found dead, and another man was hospitalized, after a morning house fire in Cheshire Tuesday, according to the town’s police department. Cheshire fire crews responded to a home on Brookside Place just after 3 a.m. Tuesday.
A man and two dogs in the home were missing through most of Tuesday. Police said in an update in the evening that a man and a dog were found dead among the debris. The two were found after the Town of Cheshire Department of Public Works was called to assist investigators in sifting through the debris with construction equipment. Police said the house fire caused heavy structural damage and a collapse to a portion of the home.
The identity of the man will be withheld until the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is able to positively identify him, according to police. Another man escaped the home requested help from a neighbor and was taken to the hospital. The extent of the hospitalized man’s injuries is not known at this time.
Lori Stocks said that her ex-husband and her 32-year-old son, Zackary Naoumides, woke up to the flames. โHe walked out of the master bedroom. I guess he saw my son in the bathroom, he said we have to get out and then there was an explosion, and he lost track of him somehow,โ Stocks said. She said her ex-husband made it out of the fire and is now recovering in the hospital. She believes her son wasnโt as lucky.
The fire caused the second floor to collapse onto the first floor, and the house is a total loss, fire officials said. None of the neighboring homes were damaged. Prospect and Southington Fire Departments assisted in responding to the fire. Cheshire police and the Cheshire Fire Department’s Fire Marshal’s Office, in cooperation with the Connecticut State Police Fire Marshal’s Office, are investigating the cause and origin of the fire.
