Valley News – Two dead in Charlestown fire

CHARLESTOWN — An early morning fire at a Charlestown residence claimed the lives of two people as state emergency personnel continued to respond to the scene throughout the day.

Crews were called to a residence on Crown Point Drive shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday after receiving a report of smoke coming from a mobile home, the state fire marshal's office said in a news release Thursday afternoon.

When Charlestown firefighters entered the residence, they found a deceased man inside and after the fire was “extinguished,” they found a second victim, a woman, the state commissioner's office said. fires.

Positive identification of the victims and their cause and manner of death are pending an autopsy, which will take place Friday at the New Hampshire State Medical Examiner's Office in Concord.

The owner of the residence was away at the time, but the deaths involved two people who were inside the residence at the time of the fire, according to Todd Tewksbury Jr., a neighbor of the residence.

Tewksbury, who said the owner of the house that caught fire was a cousin, said he was awakened around 7 a.m. by the barking of his dog. When he got up to check what had excited his dog, he saw a fire truck parked in his driveway.

He went outside and saw the neighboring residence on fire, Tewksbury said.

“There was smoke and flames coming from the roof,” he said.

Tewksbury said he saw emergency crews attempt to administer CPR to a man who had been taken out of the residence.

“They tried for a very long time,” Tewksbury said of emergency personnel trying to resuscitate the victim.

Fire and emergency vehicles crowded Crown Point Drive, a cul-de-sac of mobile homes off Old Claremont Road north of downtown Charlestown, for much of the day.

Tewksbury said emergency responders were alerted to the fire by local residents who were out walking in the morning.

He said the owner of the residence, his cousin, was informed of the fire by other family members and was on her way back to her residence Thursday afternoon.

The investigation into the origin and cause of the fire is active and ongoing by the Fire Marshal's Office and the Charlestown Fire and Police Departments.

Contact John Lippman at [email protected].