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CONCORD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A Concord mansion built in 1897 was gutted by fires Friday morning, as crews faced difficulty containing the flames.
When crews arrived at the Fairhaven Hill Road home shortly before 10 a.m., smoke was showing from the second and third floors. By mid-afternoon, the home's facade had collapsed, and the multi-million-dollar mansion was completely destroyed.
Two workers who were inside the home at the time of the fire were able to make it out safely. WBZ NewsRadio has learned the owners of the home are away on vacation—and that they and their pets are safe.
Concord Fire Chief Thomas Judge said it was a caretaker who discovered the fire.
"Everything looks like the fire had a tremendous head start before we got here," he said. "My understanding is there were a couple of caretakers who came to check on the house, and they discovered smoke in the house, and that was when they called the fire department."
Chief Judge told WBZ-TV that crews had trouble getting water to the scene to put out the flames.
"We're having water supply problems, which you can probably see," Chief Judge said. There's no hydrants up in this part of our town. The main water supply here is a cistern, which I believe is about 30,000 gallons, which is going to go pretty quick with the way we're using water."
A town official described the neighborhood's water mains as "historical," dating back to the 1920s. They said the mains were only 3.5 inches in diameter—not enough to help put out a fire of this magnitude.
The department had to bring in tanker trucks from all sorts of towns, including Stow, Harvard, Lincoln, Bedford, Marlborough, Lexington, and more, in order to fight the fire. Hoses had to be snaked back nearly a mile to Route 2.
A Zillow page lists the 6,500-square foot, five bedroom, five bathroom home's value at over $3 million.
The cause of the fire was not yet known.
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports
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