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Bolton Street - March 24, 1966
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Rocket Fuel Blamed For House Fire
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| A Co. 5 Volunteer Arrives First (Photo by John Mongillo, Jr.) - CLICK to enlarge |
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| Engine 5 arrives and an interior attack begins (Photo by John Mongillo, Jr.) |
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From the New Haven Register, March 25, 1966:
The caption under the photo at left read, "A Mt. Carmel Company fireman was the first to arrive at the scene of the blaze [on] Bolton St. Thursday afternoon. Though the blaze was intense enough to melt a storm door on the porch and metal sheathing on the house, fieremen brought it under control within 15 minutes."
HAMDEN - Damage of several thousand dollars to a Bolton Street home Thursday afternoon was apparently caused by some teenagers playing with rocket fuel.
Extensive damage occurred to the rear porch and roof and lesser damage to the living room at [the] Bolton St. residence.
Engines 4 and 5 from Mt. Carmel and Centerville and Ladder and Rescue 2 responded under the commands of Fire Chief V. Paul Leddy and Deputy Chiefs James Strain and Daniel Hume. Police included Deputy Chief Hugh Mulhern and Patrolmen John Collake and William Earley.
The flame melted an aluminum storm door inside the porch at an entrance to the living room. It spread to the roof of [the] house and climbed to the peak by a side chimney. Aluminum sheathing on the roof melted from the heat.
Fire Marshal Albert Purce is continuing the investigation. Preliminary investigation reports indicate that the three boys were playing with some rocket fuel and a small propane tank. [One of them] attempted to put out the fire with an extinguisher but it did not operate.
Firemen put the roaring blaze out within 15 minutes of their arrival.
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Bolton Street
Bolton Street is among a few Hamden streets that have been cut short, reconfigured, or have disappeared altogether. It ran west off #2902 Whitney Avenue in Mt. Carmel, up a steep hill to just beyond Villa Road. The portion of Bolton Street between Whitney and Villa was eliminated when the Rt. 40 Connector was built in the mid-1970s. Several houses on the street were either razed or moved. Ironically, the house that caught fire in 1966 is one of two original Bolton Street houses still standing today.
What's left of Bolton Street today is accessible only from the end of Villa Road, off Dickerman Street. The street was extended west and south to a cul-de-sac after 1990, and there are more houses on Bolton Street today than before the Connector.
Posted 10/2/10
(For more comments on other Hamden streets that have changed or disappeared over the years,
go to Hamden - Then & Now and scroll to the bottom of the page.)
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