Saugus house fire cuts Christmas glee short

SAUGUS-Intense heat from a fire at 20 Lily Pond Ave. Thursday likely destroyed most of the home’s contents, including several Christmas presents recently purchased for the two children living there, Fire Chief Jim Blanchard said.Four people were inside the home when a fire started in a rear bedroom just before 5 p.m. No one was injured.Resident Paula Dente was not home when her house caught fire, but her husband, Christopher, their two children, Amanda, 12 and Christopher, 9 and 9-year-old nephew were all home. The younger Christopher is a student at the Waybright School and Amanda attends Belmonte Middle School.”I’m just, like, in shock,” Paula Dente said.At the time, Dente wasn’t sure if her kids’ Christmas presents were salvageable.”All the electronics [were inside]. Brand new TVs, an Xbox 360, iPods. Everything,” Dente said. “My daughter’s laptop.””With the amount of heat in there, most of that stuff was destroyed,” Blanchard said.The family rescued two cats from the thick smoke before firefighters arrived.”They didn’t get their shoes on but they got their cats,” Dente said.Inspectional Services and the State Fire Marshall’s Office were called to investigate the cause of the fire, which as of press time had not been released.”All we know now is the fire started in the rear bedroom on the first floor and ripped right though there,” Blanchard said.Firefighters conducted “an aggressive interior attack” that included cutting a hole through the home’s roof, he said.Even though the flames were knocked down rather quickly, the one and ? story wood frame home had double the amount of insulation that homes typically do, making heat from the fire especially intense, Blanchard said.He explained that the blackened front door of the house was damaged by heat from the fire, even though the flames were contained to the rear of the house.Lily Pond Avenue is located off Central Street, about a half-mile from Walnut Street where the former Lily Pond once existed.Blanchard says the location of the home made a big difference for firefighters. Along with most homes in the neighborhood, it was once a summer cottage for vacationers who came to the pond about 100 years ago.Because of that, the house still had some of the seasonal home fittings, including a 100-gallon propane tank attached to the outside of the house.The fire started in Paula Dente’s bedroom about 10 feet away from the tank, which could have resulted in a massive explosion had firefighters not arrived quickly.”It’s very dangerous,” Blanchard said. “The pond is gone but the homes are still here? If you know the area, you know what you’re dealing with.”The Dentes planned on staying with friends Thursday night.