By Eric Francis, Standard Correspondent
SHARON – A family dog died in a mid-morning house fire Friday morning on Moore Road in a corner of Sharon near the North Pomfret town line.
The first alarm blaze at the residence of Kevin Lane and his wife Shirley Eastman-Lane, a medical secretary, was first noticed by a neighbor shortly after 11 a.m.
By the time firefighters from the Sharon, South Royalton, Broad Brook and Teago volunteer departments were able to reach the remote area off Howe Hill Road the house was “pretty well fully involved,” Sharon Fire Chief Jason Flint explained.
“It’s a total loss,” the chief said after his fire crews finally got back to their station just after 6 p.m. Friday evening. “It’s still kind of standing but the rafters are all burned off and the roof boards. The only thing left standing there is the metal roofing.”
Chief Flint said the fire appeared to have begun in an area near where a wood stove was located on the first floor, “and that’s kinda what we are leaning toward as a cause. We don’t really know for sure.”
The family’s older dog succumbed to the smoke in an upstairs bedroom but firefighters were able to recover him from the structure so that the family will be able to bury him, the chief said.