By DAN CROWLEY
Daily Hampshire Gazette
SOUTHAMPTON — A large shack off East Street was destroyed in a Saturday night blaze that kept firefighters on the scene for hours and gave a man who lived at the property first degree burns to the face, according to the Southampton Fire Department.
The fire was deemed accidental and caused by a wood stove in the shack. The structure was situated in a wooded area at 69½ East St. and the fire was reported shortly before midnight, Southampton Fire Chief John Workman said.
Workman and Southampton police on Sunday did not identify the burn victim, who was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment. It also wasn’t immediately clear Sunday who owns the property.
Workman said firefighters had difficulty accessing the shack with fire engines, one of which got stuck in a muddy field firefighters needed to cross to reach the shack in the woods. The engine had to be towed out and an ambulance also got stuck in the mud, he said.
“We couldn’t get an engine out to it,” Workman said. “It was just too difficult to cross the field.”
Workman said the only option was to call the Easthampton Fire Department’s brush truck to get across the field and firefighters from both departments eventually extinguished the blaze with that unit.
“They shuttled back and forth from the road to get water,” Workman said of the brush truck crew.
Workman said the shack was uninsured and that firefighters did not put a cost estimate on the damage. He said Southampton firefighters cleared the fire station at about 4 a.m.
Dan Crowley can be reached at [email protected].
