Charlestown house destroyed in fire, three families displaced

A house on Old Claremont Road in Charlestown was destroyed in a fast-moving fire Thursday morning, leaving three apartments out of service and forcing three families to find new housing.

Charlestown Warden Shawn O’Hearne said the fire started at about 5:30 a.m. on May 21 and ran along the roofline and down the sides of the building near the intersection of Old Claremont Road and Snumshire Road. Firefighters and neighbors were dealing with a structure that was already being treated as a total loss by the time the response was underway.

No residents and no firefighters were injured, but two cats died in the blaze. The loss was especially severe because the home was a multi-family building, turning one fire into an immediate housing crisis for multiple households at once.

Mutual aid came from several departments in Vermont and New Hampshire, including Springfield Fire, West Weatherfield Fire, Ascutney Fire and North Walpole Fire and Rescue. The response underscored how quickly a residential fire in Charlestown can pull in crews from across the river and across the state line when a large structure is involved.

A dispatch alert associated with the incident reported a tanker request for a building fire on Old Claremont Road at 2:31 a.m., showing how early the alarm reached emergency systems before the morning fire intensified. The house sat in a part of town where access and water supply can become major issues during a large fire, especially when multiple departments have to coordinate on a single scene.

Charlestown’s emergency-services page lists O’Hearne as the town’s Forest Fire Warden and directs residents to the town office for emergency services contact information. For families now dealing with displacement, Southwestern Community Services offers housing stabilization help in Sullivan County, including shelters, rental assistance and coordinated entry for people facing homelessness or housing insecurity.

With the structure likely beyond saving, the immediate focus now shifts to where the displaced families will stay, what can be recovered from the property, and how the site will be made safe as officials continue their work around the scene.