By STEPHEN BEALE
Union Leader Correspondent
 

GOFFSTOWN - A two-alarm fire ripped through a small Elm Street home Tuesday as firefighters from Goffstown and several surrounding towns rushed to the scene.

When Keith Moore left his 58 Elm St. home earlier in the morning, he said he turned off his wood stove and Monitor heater. All was quiet when he returned for lunch at 15 minutes before noon, but as he flipped on the television set in a second-floor room, he noticed fog outside his windows.

"I said, 'Man it's getting awfully foggy,'" Moore said.

He went downstairs, opened his kitchen door, and saw a wall of black smoke facing him from his porch. After grabbing his cell phone to call the fire department, Moore ran out the front door as flames erupted in the shed and kitchen areas, at the back of his house.

Fire Chief Richard O'Brien said the fire began in the shed and spread rapidly throughout the house. He said the old-style balloon construction of the house worked against fire crews.

No one was injured in the blaze. A pet cat, Lucky, was rescued and brought to the veterinarian. The cat was recovering on fluids and oxygen. Shannon Moody, Moore's daughter, said she gave the cat that name when she got him as a child.

"I was just lucky that my parents let me keep him," Moody said.

At the height of the fire, three engines, a ladder truck and squad vehicle from the Goffstown Fire Department were on the scene, according to O'Brien. New Boston and Weare each sent one engine. The fire forced the town to shut down Elm Street from Maple Avenue to Paige Hill Road for several hours.

The fire was under control by 1:25 p.m., O'Brien said. He said the house is a total loss. Moore, who is the superintendent for the Grasmere Village Water Precinct, has lived there with his wife Toni since 1975.

O'Brien said he did not know the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation. Moore speculated that it could have been due to an electrical problem that may have been festering in his cellar.

Reproduced by the Goffstown Residents Association.