Widow of Mass. Firefighter Leaps to Escape Blaze

Screeching smoke detectors woke Sandra Brawn yesterday morning and the widow of a Grafton Fire Department captain tried to call 911, but the connection was lost.

She went from her second-floor bedroom to the other end of the house. Surrounded by flames, she broke through a window in a spare bedroom and jumped to a deck.

"She did the right thing," police Sgt. Michael A. Mazzola said. "Or she wouldn't have made it. If it would have been a family of five, they wouldn't have all made it out."

Sgt. Mazzola was working the overnight shift and driving down Oak Street shortly before 6 yesterday morning and saw the house at 13 Oak St. glowing red.

"I saw heavy smoke. On the left, I could see the whole inside was full of fire," Sgt. Mazzola said. "You could hear it. You could see it."

Sgt. Mazzola called in to report the fire, and police Officer Mark Benoit went to the house.

Sgt. Mazzola smashed his hand through the window near the door and tried to open it from within. It wouldn't budge.

"I kicked it in," Sgt. Mazzola said. "Opening the front door gave the fire a giant gulp of oxygen, which created a massive back draft, and blew out the side window on the first floor. It was actually raging all the way up to the top."

Officer Benoit headed around the right side of the house to the backyard to find another way in. As he circled around, he saw Mrs. Brawn jump.

"I heard a crash and then a thud," Officer Benoit said. "I saw her hitting the deck."

Mrs. Brawn barely escaped the fire with her life after taking the daring leap from the second floor.

Mrs. Brawn, a Grafton Elementary School librarian who firefighters estimated to be in her 60s, was injured in the fall and unable to walk. The two officers carried her away from the fire to safety and waited with her until the ambulance arrived. She was taken to a hospital in Worcester. The officers suspected she may have broken bones.

The two-story home, which had a plaque on its facade dating it to 1857, is a total loss, according to Fire Chief Michael Gauthier. Much of the roof collapsed, and the house was being dismantled by firefighters yesterday morning. The cause of the fire appears accidental, according to the state fire marshal's office.

Chief Gauthier said that when firefighters arrived, heavy fire was coming out of the back and front of the house.

"There was so much fire everywhere. Flames were shooting through the roof," Chief Gauthier said.

The chief quickly called second and third alarms, and firefighters from Upton, Millbury and Northbridge joined Grafton firefighters to beat down the flames. It took several hours for firefighters to completely extinguish the flames. No firefighters were injured, the chief said.

Mrs. Brawn is the widow of Grafton Fire Department Capt. James Brawn and the mother of Lt. James Brawn Jr., who was at the fire yesterday.

A Grafton engine was involved in an accident on the way to the fire, and an engine from Millbury took its place.

Firefighters from Westboro, Sutton and Northbridge covered the town's three stations.

Peter J. Ostroskey, former fire chief in Uxbridge, who now serves as deputy state fire marshal at the Department of Fire Services, was at the fire scene early yesterday.

Authorities said the fire appears to have started near the entertainment system in a large, open room on the first floor.

Officer Benoit was involved in a rescue earlier this year - on Jan. 3 at 6 Airport Drive in North Grafton. Officer Benoit, who previously served on the Grafton Fire Department, kicked in the door at that house and forced his way in to find an elderly man sleeping in a first-floor bedroom.

The Airport Road fire was the first of four three-alarm fires in Grafton this year.

Firefighters battled another blaze at 1 Hingham Road on Jan 5.

On Jan. 13, a house at 23 Countryside Road was heavily damaged. A Grafton man, Joseph Mullen, was charged with setting the fire.