Wednesday, September 3, 2008

In the News - Plain St fire, schools re-open

Franklin woman escapes blaze

By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff

A napping woman escaped her second-story Plain Street apartment without injury yesterday afternoon, awoken by fire alarms and fleeing as her house filled with smoke and flames, officials said.

As Cheryl Colby ran out of the185 Plain St. home, neighbors say they called 911 and ran to the rescue, setting up a ladder, believing Colby's son was still upstairs. As it turned out, they said, he was not home.

Fire Chief Gary McCarraher said the two-alarm blaze, called in at 4:20 p.m., is under investigation. It resulted in substantial fire, smoke and water damage to the home, he said.

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Fire caused by match or cigarette

By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff

Fire Chief Gary McCarraher Tuesday, Aug. 2, announced the two-alarm blaze that roared through the home at 185 Plain St. Monday was accidental, caused by careless disposal of smoking materials.

James Colby, who lives on the second floor, was smoking a cigarette around 1 or 1:30 p.m. on the wooden back deck before he left the house. Either a match or the cigarette butt later ended up igniting the deck, with fire ripping up the two-family home's vinyl siding to the attic, the chief said.

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Franklin schools to reopen after pipe explosion

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

School will resume tomorrow at Oak Street Elementary School, Horace Mann Middle School, and the Early Childhood Development Center after Superintendent Wayne Ogden closed the schools today for emergency repairs.

Early Labor Day morning, a piece of plumbing that controls hot water and steam failed and exploded at the school complex at 224 Oak St., Ogden explained.

"The pressure was so intense, it blew a hole through the sheetwall in the utility closet ... and shorted an electrical panel for the whole complex," which set off the fire alarm, he said.

The Fire Department and facilities workers cleaned up the water and started to repair the electrical panel on Monday, he said, but were unable to buy plumbing parts on Labor Day weekend.

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