Dijit Taylor bought her Hopkinton house 35 years ago, and it proved to be a classic New England fixer-upper.
The colonial-style home at 660 Hopkinton Road, built in 1790, was damaged in a barn fire before she and her family moved in.
Back then, the market price was right in her budget, and the school district was a good fit for her children.
Her husband was the “handyman” who did a bulk of the work in their house, from installing windows to putting in the house’s electrical wiring. Taylor, the former executive director of the state’s Land & Community Heritage Investment Program, helped with the painting and carpentry.
The house was still undergoing some renovations all these years later when a fire tore through the historic property Monday afternoon.
“Devastated, shocked, amazed,” Taylor said. “So shocked that I can’t even figure out how I’m thinking.”
Just after 3 p.m., Hopkinton and Concord firefighters were dispatched to the home for a report of a fire. The first crews arrived to find heavy fire showing in the colonial-style home. No one was home at the time of the fire, officials said.
An hour before, a Franklin ranch-style home built in 1963 was heavily damaged by a fire in its garage area around 2:20 p.m., officials said, with all family members accounted for and uninjured.
The Franklin Fire Department responded to the report of a structure fire at 189 Sanborn St. around 2:19 p.m. Monday, with Fire Chief Michael Foss calling a first alarm immediately, he said.
“I tried to do a walk around, but the flames were so so heavy at that point, because of the wind fueling the fire, that I wasn’t able to get around the whole building,” Foss said.
The three-bed, one-bath home sustained extensive damage to the garage area, with smoke damage and structural issues throughout, making it uninhabitable, Foss said. The fire was under control in about an hour.
One adult man and two dogs were in the home at the time of the fire, and all occupants evacuated without injury. An adult woman and three children, who also lived in the home, were not present during the incident. The Red Cross was notified and will provide the family with assistance.
The Franklin Police Department also evacuated a man with disabilities from a nearby home due to high winds, causing the smoke to travel far.
Franklin Middle School, just across the from the home, was notified of the fire and rerouted buses to avoid the area.
Foss said the fire is under investigation. The towns of Sanbornton, Tilton-Northfield, Bristol and the city of Concord helped on the scene. The Boscawen Fire Department and Newhampton Ambulance covered the Franklin station.
The home is owned by Melissa and Alexander Newman, according to property records.
