Mount Washington — A trio of devastating blazes ignited early Sunday morning in this tiny town, destroying a pair of historic structures and a home across the street. The buildings were unoccupied and no one was hurt.
Brian Tobin, who chairs the Mount Washington Selectboard, told The Edge in an interview that he was alerted to the West Street blazes at 1:30 a.m. and could see the flames from his home on Mountain Road a mile or two away.
Mount Washington has a full-time population of fewer than 200 people, so it does not have its own fire department. Egremont is contracted to provide protection for the town. Fire departments from Sheffield, Great Barrington and Dalton also responded, along with Hillsdale and Copake in New York. State police and Egremont police were also on the scene, along with K-9 units from Great Barrington and Sheffield, Tobin said.
Tobin said he was on the scene until 5 a.m. and returned five hours later. After Tobin arrived initially, only the two adjacent structures at 23 West St. were fully involved. Egremont fire chief Joseph Schneider could not be reached for comment.
When he looked across the street, Tobin could see that another structure, a private home at 52 West St., had started to burn roughly 1,000 feet away. Tobin said the severely damaged home is a weekend residence that was unoccupied at the time. According to records in the Mount Washington assessor’s office, the 18-acre property is owned by Paul and Sophie Lowenstein of Newton.
Tobin termed the fires “highly suspicious,” but added that he was standing perhaps 200 feet away from the Ann Lee cottage and could not detect the odor of an accelerant. He described the Lowenstein residence as “half-burnt.”
“It’s hard to escape the sense that it could be arson,” Tobin said. “These were two very intense blazes that looked like they were right from the core of the houses.”
The two historic structures were owned by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. One of them was the Benjamin Osborn House, known locally as the Ann Lee Cottage. It was built in 1759 and was the site where Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee stayed in 1781. It is thought to be the oldest structure in town, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Tobin said it was a total loss.
Tobin said he had sent out a message to everyone in town telling them of the news and advising people “to stay calm and vigilant.”
“It’s scary — this is a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere,” Tobin said Sunday evening after returning from the site where firefighters and investigators continued to work into the night. “It’s very remote. We don’t want anyone to panic but we do want people to keep their eyes and ears open.”
Tobin wanted to thank all the firefighters, law enforcement and other personnel who came to the scene, especially the Egremont Fire Department, which Tobin described as “amazing.”
Jennifer Mieth, spokesperson for the state Department of Fire Services, confirmed the complete destruction of the two state-owned structures. She said an investigation is going and involves multiple agencies, including the Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the state fire marshal’s office, and a state police detective unit assigned from the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office.
Mieth asked anyone with information to contact the DA’s office or the state arson hotline at 1-800-682-9229. Mieth emphasized that inclusion of the arson hotline as a contact does not necessarily mean that authorities have already concluded that the fires were set.
“We’re not saying it’s arson at this time but [the fires] are being investigated,” Mieth said.
The Mount Washington fires follow a series of blazes last week in South County, including one at the Beech Tree apartments and another at the senior housing complex at Main Street and Brookside Road in Great Barrington. Two died in the Beech Tree blaze. A third on East Stahl Road in Sheffield resulted in the death of one dog and extensive damage to the home. Unlike Mouth Washington, none of those fires are thought to be suspicious in nature.