May 21, 2017 – On the above date at 5:07 a.m. the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a report of smoke coming from the residence at 2790 Highway 83 in the Town of Hartford.
The caller was a passerby and ultimately made contact with the 82-year old resident and evacuated her from the residence. There was also an off-duty Hartford firefighter who stopped to assist and rescued a cat from inside the residence.
The Hartford Fire Department was paged and deputies were dispatched to the residence.
Upon the arrival of the first Deputy on scene at 5:16 a.m. the smoke was coming out of the soffits on all sides of the residence.
When the second Deputy arrived a short time later, he positioned his squad at the intersection of Highway 83 and Whistle Drive for traffic control.
Shortly thereafter, this Deputy radioed dispatch about heavy smoke coming from a 16-unit garage structure at the Oriole Pond Apartments (400 Whistle Drive – City of Hartford) and after doing so the unit where the smoke was emanating from became fully engulfed.
At this point Hartford Fire Department upgraded the fire to a MABAS call. Fire Departments from Slinger, Richfield, Woodland, St. Lawrence, Allenton, Neosho, Ashipunn, Germantown and an ambulance from Lifestar Rescue responded.
The fires were extinguished by approximately 6:11 a.m. The garage and contents at the residence suffered severe damage; including a vehicle which is a total loss.
The apartment complex is new construction so there are no tenants. The garage structure runs parallel to Highway 83 and is approximately .2 of a mile south of 2790 Highway 83 on the same side of the road.
There were 3 garage units damaged as a result of the fire. Due to the close geographic nature and time frame of these fires the Sheriff’s Office paged in two Detectives; one of which is a fire investigator.
Hartford Police Department also contacted one of their Detectives who is also a fire investigator. The Detectives are working together on these scenes and will be assisted by the State Fire Marshal who was requested to respond.
At this time there is no damage estimate available and there is no further information being released.