Two Dogs Dead in House Fire on Senior Place

Two dogs died in a fire Friday morning that caused about $100,000 damage to a single-family house on Senior Place off Stratfield Road in Fairfield.

The house, except for the dogs, was unoccupied at the time of the fire, and the cause of the fire, which started in a kitchen, was under investigation by the Fairfield Fire Marshal's Office, said Assistant Fire Chief Scott Bisson.

The fire extended into the living room and dining room and had started to travel up the stairs when firefighters arrived. The dogs were in an upstairs bedroom and were removed from the house by firefighters, but efforts to resuscitate the dogs through CPR and oxygen were not successful, Bisson said.

Bisson described the dogs as large and with brown curly hair and said the consensus among firefighters was that they were Airedales. "The owner arrived at the scene afterwards and was very upset about the loss of the dogs," he said.

Firefighters had the fire under control in about a half-hour. Due to Friday's funeral services for two Bridgeport firefighters who died Saturday battling a house fire in Bridgeport, Fairfield's Fire Department had firefighters from Norwalk, Greenwich and Wilton Fire Departments manning fire stations in Fairfield as part of a statewide plan for mutual aid, Bisson said.

The Senior Place fire was called in by a neighbor about 8:44 a.m., Bisson said.

Senior Place was closed for about an hour, Bisson said.

The 46 Senior Place house is owned by Eric and Anna Pelletier and was most recently assessed at $332,290. It sits on 0.12 acres and was built in 1928, according to tax records.

The house is not habitable, Bisson said.