Howie
06-12-2008, 11:20 AM
Lightning destroys Woodbury home of former race car champ
BY RICK HARRISON | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WOODBURY -- Charles "Chick" Stockwell saw his share of crashes and fires in his days topping the leader board at the Danbury Fair Racearena. But with a flash of light Tuesday night, just about every physical reminder of his stock car racing days, and almost everything else he owned, vanished to dust or burned into black shells of twisted metal.
"I can't believe one lightning bolt will do that," Stockwell said.
Stockwell, 80, was watching TV in the living room of his Peter Road home at about 10:40 p.m. when the power went out. He said he went to check the circuit breaker and saw bright light coming from the barn behind his small living area.
"The flames were coming over the roof," he said. "I took off like a bandit."
When Stockwell's nearest neighbors didn't answer his banging, he ran to his son's house across the road. By the time they returned to wait for firefighters to arrive, smoke poured from the home's front door, and they knew they couldn't enter to salvage anything.
"Lucky he was watching TV and not asleep," said Stockwell's son, Tom Stockwell. "He probably wouldn't have woke up."
To supply water to the property, which sits on on a long dirt driveway, Woodbury Fire Chief Janet Morgan called for support from eight water tankers, including units from Washington, Roxbury, New Milford, Bethlehem and Southbury. Engines from Roxbury and Bethlehem joined the Woodbury units while a Southbury engine stood by at Woodbury's emergency services building.
Morgan said firefighters poured 65,000 gallons of water on the fire, fed in part by paints, acetylene and propane Stockwell used in his machinery-filled barn.
No one was hurt, and the cows Stockwell keeps on his property were grazing and were unharmed.
"There was a lot to overcome and keep the water supply getting there," Morgan said. "But we were able to save some of his belongings in the residence. We were not able to save his trophies from his racing days, but we saved as much as we could."
Stockwell sits in first place on the defunct Southern New York Racing Association Modified Division's all-time winners list with a total of 207 wins. A nine-time track champion at Danbury, he was voted most popular driver for six successive years between 1976 and 1981, when the track closed to build a shopping center.
His 1936 Ford, the first car he raced in Danbury, had been fully restored about three years ago. Wednesday, it sat as a melted hulk on the grass beside his destroyed home. A 1928 Nash, a 1989 Camaro and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle also burned.
"It's heartbreaking," said Stockwell, who lived on the property for 25 years. "My life's collection of stuff. Everything is all shot now."
Stockwell helped friends and family members pick through the rubble Wednesday afternoon, while an excavator and a backhoe lifted blackened chairs, car parts, shelves, buckets, machinery and drawers and boxes of tools into piles. The air smelled of damp ash.
Morgan, also the town's fire marshal, said all evidence points to a lightning strike sparking the fire and she would determine the cause to be an act of nature.
Stockwell said he would probably stay with his son until he can figure out his next move.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," he said in a quiet voice. "I just don't know."
BY RICK HARRISON | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WOODBURY -- Charles "Chick" Stockwell saw his share of crashes and fires in his days topping the leader board at the Danbury Fair Racearena. But with a flash of light Tuesday night, just about every physical reminder of his stock car racing days, and almost everything else he owned, vanished to dust or burned into black shells of twisted metal.
"I can't believe one lightning bolt will do that," Stockwell said.
Stockwell, 80, was watching TV in the living room of his Peter Road home at about 10:40 p.m. when the power went out. He said he went to check the circuit breaker and saw bright light coming from the barn behind his small living area.
"The flames were coming over the roof," he said. "I took off like a bandit."
When Stockwell's nearest neighbors didn't answer his banging, he ran to his son's house across the road. By the time they returned to wait for firefighters to arrive, smoke poured from the home's front door, and they knew they couldn't enter to salvage anything.
"Lucky he was watching TV and not asleep," said Stockwell's son, Tom Stockwell. "He probably wouldn't have woke up."
To supply water to the property, which sits on on a long dirt driveway, Woodbury Fire Chief Janet Morgan called for support from eight water tankers, including units from Washington, Roxbury, New Milford, Bethlehem and Southbury. Engines from Roxbury and Bethlehem joined the Woodbury units while a Southbury engine stood by at Woodbury's emergency services building.
Morgan said firefighters poured 65,000 gallons of water on the fire, fed in part by paints, acetylene and propane Stockwell used in his machinery-filled barn.
No one was hurt, and the cows Stockwell keeps on his property were grazing and were unharmed.
"There was a lot to overcome and keep the water supply getting there," Morgan said. "But we were able to save some of his belongings in the residence. We were not able to save his trophies from his racing days, but we saved as much as we could."
Stockwell sits in first place on the defunct Southern New York Racing Association Modified Division's all-time winners list with a total of 207 wins. A nine-time track champion at Danbury, he was voted most popular driver for six successive years between 1976 and 1981, when the track closed to build a shopping center.
His 1936 Ford, the first car he raced in Danbury, had been fully restored about three years ago. Wednesday, it sat as a melted hulk on the grass beside his destroyed home. A 1928 Nash, a 1989 Camaro and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle also burned.
"It's heartbreaking," said Stockwell, who lived on the property for 25 years. "My life's collection of stuff. Everything is all shot now."
Stockwell helped friends and family members pick through the rubble Wednesday afternoon, while an excavator and a backhoe lifted blackened chairs, car parts, shelves, buckets, machinery and drawers and boxes of tools into piles. The air smelled of damp ash.
Morgan, also the town's fire marshal, said all evidence points to a lightning strike sparking the fire and she would determine the cause to be an act of nature.
Stockwell said he would probably stay with his son until he can figure out his next move.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," he said in a quiet voice. "I just don't know."