LIVERMORE — Family members of Dorothy “Dottie” Goding, 83, who died in a house fire Tuesday night, consoled each other Wednesday morning at the scene.
Goding’s dog, Whiney, apparently perished with her.
State fire investigator Sgt. Joel Davis said Wednesday night that Goding died of smoke inhalation. He said the cause of the fire is listed as undetermined.
The fire ripped through the 1800s farmhouse at the end of the public part of Poland Hill Road, off Hathaway Hill Road. The house was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, fire Chief Donald Castonguay said.
“When I got here, fire was blowing out all the windows,” he said.
More than 40 firefighters from several towns assisted at the scene and attempted to extinguish the blaze.
The fire was reported just before 9 p.m.
Firefighters did not know at first whether Goding was in the house.
Goding’s son, Maynard Goding of Livermore, said he called his mother at about 8 p.m. and woke her up. She had fallen asleep in her electric recliner in the first-floor living room, as normal, he said.
She asked what time it was, he said, and was glad to hear it was not morning. He described his mother, who got around with a walker, as stubborn.
“She wanted to live here on her own,” he said. “She wasn’t afraid of anything.”
He had supported her decision, he said.
“I wasn’t ready for this,” Maynard Goding said as he looked at smoke rising from the debris of what remained of the house in the wooded area.
His mother had lived there for more than 50 years, he said. She had been a widow for more than 20 years.
The second floor of the house had collapsed on top of Dorothy Goding, Castonguay said.
Firefighters found her body after midnight Wednesday morning, about 4 feet from the door, where her recliner was, he said.
Dorothy’s grandson and Maynard’s son, Jeremy Goding, 33, of Livermore, a local firefighter, had responded to the fire but didn’t fight the blaze.
“It is the hardest fire I have been called to,” he said. “I lived here most of my life.”
He and his father had lived with his grandmother at times.
“We built her a bathroom so she could stay by herself,” Jeremy said.
He described his grandmother as a good, honest woman.
“She’d give you the shirt off her back,” he said.
Dorothy’s younger sister, Frances Tilton, 73, of Wilton, broke into sobs as she looked at what was left of the house. She had stopped by two or three times a week to help her sister and had stayed there on occasion.
“She didn’t have a chance,” Tilton said.
State fire investigators from the Office of the State Fire Marshal were on the scene until 3 a.m. Investigators Ike Peppard and Chris Stanford returned later Wednesday morning to see if they could determine the cause.
Jeremy Goding said his grandmother had not burned firewood since 1995, but there was still wood in the woodshed, which rekindled the fire Wednesday morning.
A Hillside Excavating excavator, operated by owner Matt Dion, removed some of the charred debris.
Livermore interim Administrative Assistant Renda Guild and interim Town Clerk Jean Tardif both said they had known Dorothy Goding their entire lives.
“She was a beautiful resident of the community,” Guild said.
“Dottie was always a good person,” Tardif said.
She and her late husband, Philip, were involved in the the community and raised two great kids, Tardif said.
“The family has taken great care of her so she could stay in the house,” Tardif said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Livermore firefighter Jeremy Goding, 33, of Livermore looks at the smoldering remains of a house on Poland Hill in Livermore where his grandmother Dorothy “Dottie” Goding, 83, had lived until a fire claimed her life and the house late Tuesday.
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- Livermore firefighter Jeremy Goding, 33, of Livermore looks at the smoldering remains of a house on Poland Hill in Livermore where his grandmother, Dorothy “Dottie” Goding, 83, had lived until a fire claimed her life and the house late Tuesday.
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- A fire that claimed the life of Dorothy Goding, 83, of Livermore late Tuesday still smoldered Wednesday morning. Firewood in a shed rekindled the fire at the Poland Hill Road house but was quickly put out by Livermore fire Chief Don Castonguay.
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- Livermore fire Chief Don Castonguay, left, and firefighter Jeremy Goding watch as state fire investigator Ike Peppard takes photos Wednesday morning of the smoldering remains of Goding’s grandmother’s house on Poland Hill Road in Livermore. Dorothy Goding, 83, died in the fire Tuesday night. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire.
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- State fire investigator Ike Peppard takes photos Wednesday morning of the smoldering remains of the house of Dorothy Goding, 83, on Poland Hill Road in Livermore. The fire claimed Goding’s life Tuesday night.
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- Livermore fire Chief Don Castonguay, right, watches as Matt Dion, owner of Hillside Excavating in Livermore, removes charred debris Wednesday morning from the site of a house fire that took the life of Dorothy Goding, 83, Tuesday night on Poland Hill Road in Livermore.
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- Livermore firefighter Jeremy Goding, 33, of Livermore looks over the remains of his grandmother, Dorothy Goding’s house on Poland Hill Road in Livermore. Dorothy Goding, 83, died in the fire.
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