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Smoking likely cause of fatal Rayhnam fire

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 6, 2009 02:55 PM

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

By Vivian Nereim, Globe Correspondent

RAYHNAM -- Every day, Dorothy Boreham would walk across her yard to visit her friend Madeline Castelluzzo. In the summer, her feet would wear a line in the grass. In the winter, Castelluzzo would shovel a path through the snow.

Dorothy Boreham

Today the grass was covered in debris, the path obscured. An early morning fire in Boreham's mobile home in the Pine Hill Estates apparently killed Boreham and her grown son, Neil.

Authorities have not officially identified the remains and may not for at least a week, according to the Bristol District Attorney's office. Several neighbors and the victim's grandson said today the fire killed Dorothy Boreham, 83, and Neil Boreham, who was in his early 60s.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at 2:21 a.m. The three alarm fire took 40 minutes to quell, and by the time firefighters made it inside, they found Dorothy and Neil Boreham, and their dog, a 2-year old Papillon named Butch, in Dorothy Boreham's bedroom. All three were dead. Raynham Chief James T. Januse said he believed the son may have been trying to rouse his mother before they were trapped by the flames.

Friends said Neil Boreham, who was physically frail after a heart attack and a stroke, would have been unable to save his mother. "There was no way he was going to get his mother out of there, not with the conditions he had," said Castelluzzo.

Castelluzzo and others said Neil Boreham was also a heavy smoker. His mother wouldn't allow him to smoke inside, so he smoked on their porch, they said.

It appears a cigarette sparked the blaze on the back porch and authorities have identified the "careless disposal of smoking materials" as the likely cause, according to Januse and State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan.

Neighbors and friends gathered outside the home at 92 Peter Street this morning, comforting each other and trying to make sense of the blackened wreckage in front of them.

They said Dorothy Boreham, who was born in Nova Scotia, was an indispensable part of their community, never one to complain and unwaveringly kind.

Kathy Flibotte, a friend, said when she heard there was a fire at 92 Peter Street, she was shocked.

"Even though I knew, I went to get my address book," she said. "I knew, but I didn't want to believe it."

Initially, the fire department worried propane tanks near the porch could cause an explosion, so they evacuated the neighboring homes, but they were able to bring the fire under control.

The home did not have smoke detectors, Januse said.

"That was huge," he said. "That probably would have made a difference, I can't stress that enough."