WESTFIELD – In addition to the fire on Little River Road Sunday which forced a resident from the home, two other fires Sunday resulted in loss.
A chicken coop and seven chickens were destroyed in a fire at Dug Road and a fire on West Silver Street damaged a bird house.
City firefighters sent two engines and the department’s tower truck to 21 Dug Road for a 2:08 a.m. report of a shed fire.
Deputy Chief Ben Warren reports the firefighters arrived to find an eight foot by 10 foot chicken coop which was fully involved with flames and had collapsed. The firefighters extinguished the remains of the coop.
Warren reports that there was no permanent electrical power at the coop but a heat lamp powered by an extension cord had been used to keep the chickens warm and was the apparent cause of ignition.
Seven chickens reportedly died in the fire.
Later in the day, a short time after a 6:22 p.m. structure fire (see story in the Monday, Nov. 19 edition of The Westfield News) across the street from the Little Fire River Sub-Station, a passerby reported a possible fire on a porch at 45 West Silver Street.
An engine and the tower truck (recently returned from the Little River Road fire) responded to the 7:25 p.m. call and Fire Capt. Keith Supinski reports that firefighters found a fire smoldering in a bird house on the porch.
The fire was extinguished and Supinski reports that a resident said that she had been using the bird house as an ash tray to conceal her smoking habit from her children.
