Harrison Thorp 10:18 a.m.
Friday, November 11, 2016 10:18 am
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WEST LEBANON - A smoky chimney fire on Dixon Road on Thursday threatens one of West Lebanon's most historic homes.
Trulilia.com lists the property at 134 Dixon Road as built in 1900 but photographs and a booklet detailing some of Lebanon's most famous residents show it as the birthplace of Ina (Blaisdell) Shaw on Sept. 24, 1876.
Thursday's fire was called in around 7 p.m., and drew mutual aid from fire departments in Milton, Rochester, Farmington, North Berwick, Berwick, South Berwick, Somersworth and Durham.
David Olean who lives just up the hill, said he learned of the fire when he got a call from another neighbor, who reported it as a cellar fire.
"I went down to the house and there were a lot of firetrucks already there," Olean said today. "There was a lot of smoke and they (firefighters) were busting out the windows."
Olean said the owner of the house said he'd set a fire in the woodstove upstairs and had gone out to do some errands, only to find himself following fire engines on his way home, ultimately realizing it was his home that was burning.
"He was just distraught," Olean said.
Apparently it started in the cellar and must have worked its way through the walls, Olean said, adding there was a lot of smoke coming out of the attic but that he never saw any flame.
He said after a while, firefighters were able to get inside and put the fire out around 8 p.m.
The owner was able to salvage some firearms from the residence, but described the insides as "a mess," Olean added.
"He was just happy no one was hurt and that he has insurance," he said.
Meanwhile, many are hoping the historic home where Shaw grew up can be salvaged due to its historic import to the town.
In 1897 Ina Blaisdell married John Shaw, who died in 1942.
In 1968 after she retired from local shoeshops, Ina Shaw moved back to Dixon Road, living in her "Dreamhouse" a few hundred yards below the house that was burned on Thursday.
That "Dreamhouse," a former railroad section house at the railroad crossing in Eastwood - where Dee's Route 202 Diner now stands - was moved lock, stock and barrel and is where Ina Shaw spent the rest of her life. She died in March 1978 at the age of 102.