UPDATE, March 4, 2019: The boil water alert has been lifted.
A boil water order has been issued for parts of Barre City, Vt. following a fire that damaged a two century old home Thursday evening.
The City of Barre issued the boil water notice for residents on North Street, Academy Street, Averill Street, Cliff Street, Church Street, Jefferson Street, Elm Street, Eastern Avenue, Highland Avenue and Merchant Street.
The distribution system may have been depressurized as a result of the water usage during firefighting, which can cause the water supply to be contaminated, the city manager said.
Residents should boil their drinking water until at least noon Monday when, officials say, the water quality test results will be available.
Firefighters from several area crews responded to 17 Averill Street just before 7:30 Thursday evening.
They remained on scene overnight.
The fire investigation has been completed.
The cause and origin of the fire are “undetermined,” according to Barre City Fire Chief Douglas Brent.
It is being considered an accidental fire and not suspicious.
The residents were fortunate to not be home at the time of the fire.
“Would it have been detected sooner? One can only opine that could be the case. But they could have been hurt,” said Chief Brent.
While the cause is unknown, it did involve propane in some way, Chief Brent says. There were propane tanks inside the home.
The 200-year old home proved to be challenging for firefighters.
“It got a wonderful metal roof which worked really well but it’s like putting a cap on a chimney,” explained Chief Brent. “If you put a metal roof on it, it holds every bit of heat in so until we can open up the roof like we did, and get some of that smoke and heated gas out, it continues to allow the fire to burn, you’re gonna have problems.”