Regina Locke and her son Matthew left for an errand to pick up Matthew’s check from his job at Market Basket. They couldn’t have been gone more than 45 minutes, they figured.
Driving back home along Penacook’s Elm Street, their neighborhood was filled with black smoke. Regina had just one thought: “The garage is on fire.”
Matthew, 33, had been in the garage before they left. Partially insulated, he’d been using it as a place to store his tools and watch TV. It was his “mancave,” as Regina put it.
He realized he had forgotten to turn off the external camping heater, which he’d had facing a lounge chair, before they left. He also wished he’d thought to bring his phone with him. He was able to reach into the garage and shut off the breaker to kill the power to the heater.
Regina went inside and grabbed the kitchen fire extinguisher she’d been using as a doorstop and brought it outside, trying to put out the growing blaze. A neighbor joined.
Her husband, who is blind, and her brother, who has an intellectual disablity, had been inside the house with their two dogs, a pit bull and a pug. All were able to get out safely.
Across the street, Doug Jones went out to his truck and saw black smoke filling the neighborhood. He noticed Regina’s car pull into the driveway and the growing flames.
“You can’t fight this,” he recalled saying to her. “You’ve got to call the fire department.”
The call came into Concord fire at 2:43 p.m. The engine in that district had been in the middle of a training exercise with new recruits and was unable to travel to the scene, according to Chief John Chisholm.
An ambulance was first to the scene and deployed its fire extinguishers. A tower truck was next, five minutes later, but it doesn’t carry water on board. The engine from the Heights was the first able to arrive, at 2:56 p.m., Chisholm said.
Other responding departments included Franklin, Boscawen and Loudon.
Firefighters searched the house and a trailer in the driveway to ensure there was no one inside.
The flames were tamed quickly, and no significant injuries were reported.
“I just want to get back in the house,” Regina said shortly before she was cleared to do so, around 3:40 p.m. Their home of roughly 32 years hadn’t been damaged in the fire.
She escorted her family and their dogs back inside to safety.
