House fire on Perrys Corners Road

AMENIA — Fire departments from Amenia, Wassaic and Sharon, Conn., responded to a structure fire on the morning of Thursday, March 15, at 143 Perrys Corners Road in Amenia. The blaze appeared to be quickly squelched at the sprawling home, owned by Darren and Judy Reilly, leaving firefighters to contend with black smoke and smoldering wood. The fire and smoke were contained to the garage and the apartment above it. According to the homeowners, there is nobody living above the garage at the moment.No one was injured by the fire; only Judy Reilly was home at the time, with one dog inside the house and three others out back. Reilly said she hadn’t even noticed the fire and it wasn’t until she looked outside her window and saw a firefighter approaching her house that she realized anything was amiss.“I was in my bedroom and looked out the window and saw a guy outside on the other side of the house,” she said. “I didn’t even notice the fire, he was just putting all of his fire[fighting gear] on. I was like, oh my God.”Reilly said it was a neighbor living in a house behind hers that first noticed the flames and called in the fire to 911. “Apparently it started outside, and there were flames,” she said. “The side of the garage was on fire.”According to Reilly it was a short time later that the three fire companies arrived in full force and got the fire under control. By 11 a.m. a large group of firefighters had swarmed around ladders by the garage, sawing and hacking away at burnt wood, checking for hot spots.The Reillys have lived in their four-bedroom home for 13 years with their son and four dogs. This is the first time they’ve ever had any type of emergency situation. Judy said that morning she wasn’t even supposed to be home.“I was supposed to be at work but things got canceled,” she said, expressing gratitude that she was around to take care of her home, her pets and be of assistance to the firefighters if necessary. Most of all she said she appreciated that she lives in an area where neighbors look out for each other. “I’m just very grateful that somebody called it in.”Her husband was at work at the time of the fire, but returned home once informed of the incident. Her son, meanwhile, was at school.The Amenia Fire Company was in charge of the scene of the fire. It used a foam system to get the blaze under control. That foam system is relatively new to the fire company. It uses compressed air that mixes foam and water from a special tank to fight the flames.State police were at the scene of the fire as well. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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