Middleboro Man Suffers Second-Degree Burns in House and Barn Fire

MIDDLEBORO (WBSM) — A man suffered second-degree burns Tuesday as Middleboro firefighters battled a two-alarm fire that consumed a house and a barn.

According to Fire Chief Owen Thompson, the department responded at about 3 p.m. on March 11 to a fire at 61 Vernon Street. Firefighters arrived to find “fire showing through the roof of a barn behind the house, and heavy fire showing on the exterior of the house before spreading to the eaves of the attic,” Thompson said, noting that brush in the yard had caught fire as well.

With the closest fire hydrants located about a mile away from the house, it took a rotating line of tankers filling a portable tank in order to provide the water to fight the fire.

Thompson said about 35 firefighters responded from regional departments such as Lakeville, Taunton, Carver, Plymouth, Berkley, Halifax, Plympton, Wareham, Rochester, Raynham and Freetown, as well as other assistance and mutual aid from Middleboro Police, Coastal EMS and the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services Special Operations Rehab Unit.

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“Our firefighters did a fantastic job, especially with the amount of fire they faced when they first arrived, with limited water,” Chief Thompson said. “They made sure to battle the fire consuming the home and took care of the burn victim at the same time.”

The four occupants of the home had all vacated before firefighters arrived; one of them, an adult male, suffered second-degree burns on his lower extremities and was transported to Rhode Island Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

No firefighters were injured while battling the fire.

Thompson said the preliminary investigation suggests the fire started outside of the barn and spread to the adjacent building. He said the cause remains under investigation by the Middleboro Fire Department and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s Office.