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December 23, 2005

Updated: Fire destroys vacant home in Newport's Point section / Photo

Journal photo / Frieda Squires

Newport Fire Prevention Capt. Pat Carney and state fire marshals look over what remains of the home at 108 Washington St., Newport. The Claiborne Pell Bridge is in the background.

NEWPORT - A vacant house worth nearly $2 million in the historic Point section of the city burned to the ground today after a fire started in the early morning hours and tore through the two-story colonial overlooking Narragansett Bay.

Neighbors called 911 after the smell of smoke alerted them to the burning house at 108 Washington St. By the time police and firefighters reached the scene just after 1 a.m., the waterfront house near the Claiborne Pell Bridge was engulfed in flames, and burning embers whipped up by winds off the Bay were threatening surrounding residences.

The fire was brought under control at about 2:30 a.m. by the 23 firefighters on scene, and no evacuation was necessary. No one was injured. The cause is being investigated, but arson is not suspected, said police Lt. Michael Brennan.

- Journal staff writer Alex Kuffner

Police prepared to evacuate residents of Harbor House, an assisted-living complex for the elderly on the other side of Washington Street, and were called on to extinguish small fires on porches and in trees and yards around the burning house. The fire was brought under control at about 2:30 a.m. by the 23 firefighters on scene, and no evacuation was necessary.

Two vehicles were also badly damaged.

The Newport fire marshal and investigators from the state Fire Marshal’s office were at the property late this morning trying to determine the cause.

The property is owned by Joseph Shattuck, of Belmont, Mass, according to a police report. It was appraised at $943,000 in 2001, but was sold at auction for $1.6 million in 2003, according to city records. The house, which was built in 1906, had been undergoing renovations by the Damon Company, a Newport general contractor, over the past year.

- Journal staff writer Alex Kuffner

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