Fairfield Woman, 89, Loses Home Of More Than Six Decades To Fast-Moving Fire
FAIRFIELD (CBS13) — An 89-year-old woman escaped from a Fairfield grass fire that destroyed her home on Monday.
The fast-moving grass fire ripped through her walls and left gaping holes in her roof.
"I just wonder what I'm going to do," said Dorothy Todd. "I've lived in the home for 63 years."
She was inside when the flames the grass fire jumped right into her backyard and kept going.
"It reminded me of the pictures I've seen on TV about those fires up in Middletown," she said.
Good Samaritans started banging on front doors up and down Taft Street warning people to get out as the flames crept closer and closer. They helped her to safety.
"We told her she needed to get out and I looked at her back blinds and the fire was up to the back of the house, so we got her out and helped her across the street," said Jamie Samo.
Marcelino Naranjo used a drone to take video high above the fire. It shows the path of the flames and smoke billowing out of Todd's home. Firefighters asked Naranjo to take down the front for their own air attack, and he did.
Some family photos survived the fire that burned through Todd's home.
"It is very difficult seeing the home you grew up in end like this," said her daughter Bonnie Griffith.
Firefighters believe this flames somehow ignited in a field behind this block of homes and spread down fence lines until ultimately consuming the family home.
Todd got out safely thanks to the help of strangers, but now the next challenge comes.
"Starting over at 90 years old," she said.