PATRICK WHITTLE
Courtesy New Haven Register

Photo By Keith Muratori Photo By Keith Muratori Photo By Keith Muratori Photo By Keith Muratori Photo By Keith Muratori Photo By Keith Muratori

SHELTON — A fire ripped through a one-story ranch style house Tuesday morning and left a family of three living with a relative in Hamden.

The fire at 137 Rocky Rest Road injured no one but caused about $150,000 in damage, Fire Marshal James Tortora said.

Tortora said the fire appeared to begin in the kitchen near the microwave and stove, but he is still investigating the cause.

Tortora said he is not sure if the house can be rebuilt because the fire gutted the inside and the structure suffered serious heat and smoke damage.

John Zimla, his wife, Anita, and their 13-year-old son, Christopher, occupied the house, located near a pond at the bottom of a hill down a long driveway.

John Zimla said the family will stay with the Zimlas' daughter, Dawna Nuzzi of Hamden, while his insurance company and the fire marshal's office survey the damage.

Zimla said he was watching television in the living room when he heard a loud noise, which he assumed to be his wife dropping something. After another loud noise, he realized that the kitchen was on fire, he said.

Zimla said it appeared to him that the fire started in the microwave, even though neither he nor his wife was using it at the time. His wife was outside hanging clothes and his son was in school at the time of the fire, he said.

"If I didn't have insurance, I'd really be crying. It happened so quickly, you'd never get out if it happened overnight," he said.

Nuzzi said the fire shocked her because she knows her parents as extremely careful people.

"This house has been in the family for a very long time.

That's why I was heartbroken when I heard," Nuzzi said.

Fire Chief John Millo said four fire companies responded to the two-alarm fire, which began at 10:39 a.m. The Fire Department had the blaze under control by 11 a.m., he said.

A city building inspector condemned the property because of the amount of damage, Millo said.

The Zimlas have two other children: daughter, Debbie, in Pennsylvania and son, Cary, of Bridgeport. John Zimla works at Lacy Manufacturing in Bridgeport.