New Haven Independent

The fire occurred at a home on the first block of middle-class Roydon Road off Goffe Terrace.

Pamela Ernstberger, a Scotland-born marine biologist, was walking downstairs around 9 a.m. when “I saw this glow at the window.” The outside of her house was on fire.

She ushered her daughters, ages 6 and 8, outside. She grabbed the phone and tried to call 911 — but couldn’t. It turned out the fire had destroyed the cable box on the outside of the house, and her family’s phone service is through cable. So she went next door to the home of former State Rep. Irv Stolberg, who called in the fire.

Within minutes, 21 firefighters were on the scene, with three engines, a hook-and-ladder, and a squad company. The crew doused the flames right away. No one was hurt; the only damage was to the side of the house where the flames leapt.

By 10 a.m. the block was still blocked to vehicular traffic, but the crews were packing up their gear.

“It had a pretty good foothold when we got here,” West Battalion Chief Jim Stacey (pictured) said. “We knocked it down real fast. We stopped it before it got inside.”

No one was hurt in the fire. The only damage was to the side of the house where the flames leapt.

“It was my fault,” Ernstberger said. She was emptying out the ashes from the family’s wood stove. She thought they were all cooled. She deposited them in a bin at the side of the house, wrapped in newspaper. Turns out she should have waited longer.