Quick response and sprinklers prevent serious fire damage for Bridgewater furniture maker

A temporary dehumidifying air duct snakes through the third floor where an electrical fire ignited on Friday evening at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mills building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. The business recently updated their fire alarms and sprinkler system, which helped to limit the fire’s ability to spread before firefighters arrived on scene. (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

A temporary dehumidifying air duct snakes through the third floor where an electrical fire ignited on Friday evening at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mills building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. The business recently updated their fire alarms and sprinkler system, which helped to limit the fire’s ability to spread before firefighters arrived on scene. (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Valley News Photographs — Alex Driehaus

Shop manager Jeff Shepard cleans out waterlogged sawdust near one of the shop’s lathes at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mill building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. Shepard said it can be overwhelming to think about everything that needs to be done to get the shop back up and running, so he is “taking it one thing at a time.” (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Shop manager Jeff Shepard cleans out waterlogged sawdust near one of the shop’s lathes at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mill building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. Shepard said it can be overwhelming to think about everything that needs to be done to get the shop back up and running, so he is “taking it one thing at a time.” (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Troy Woods, left, furniture maker and maintenance worker, and Shea Rodgers, assistant shop manager, assess the damage to a table saw at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mill building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. Many of the shop’s tools were rusted or otherwise damaged by water released from the building’s sprinkler system. (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Troy Woods, left, furniture maker and maintenance worker, and Shea Rodgers, assistant shop manager, assess the damage to a table saw at ShackletonThomas Handmade Furniture and Pottery in the Bridgewater Mill building in Bridgewater, Vt., on Monday, July 22, 2024. Many of the shop’s tools were rusted or otherwise damaged by water released from the building’s sprinkler system. (Valley News - Alex Driehaus) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Valley News — Alex Driehaus

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 07-22-2024 8:01 PM

BRIDGEWATER — Furniture maker Charles Shackleton is crediting a fast response from Bridgewater and Woodstock firefighters along with a recently updated sprinkler system with dousing an “electrical fire” that broke out at the ShackletonThomas furniture and pottery headquarters in the Bridgewater Mill last Friday afternoon.

“We are now cleaning up water and smoke damage but nothing critical was damaged and, more importantly, no person was injured,” Shackleton posted on social media on Saturday.

The fire happened a little more than a year after Shackleton had to shut down in July 2023 after torrential rains caused the Ottauquechee River to overflow and flood the basement level of the Bridgewater Mill building, damaging sawing and milling equipment used to cut and shape wood into furniture parts.

Bridgewater and Woodstock firefighters were dispatched at 5:40 p.m. on Friday after callers reported “an explosion and visible smoke” coming from the third floor of the mill building, according to a news release from Bridgewater Volunteer Fire Department.

Upon entering the third floor firefighters, “encountered heavy black smoke with zero visibility” and “found a small fire” on the third floor but “fortunately … the sprinklers did their job in keeping the fire contained,” the fire department said in the statement.

Once the fire was tamped down and the third floor ventilated, mutual aid crews from area fire departments placed tarps over the furniture on the floors below to mitigate the loss of furniture and wood caused by water dripping down from the activated sprinklers on the floor above.

“It was mostly water and smoke damage, no major structural damage at all,” Jeff Shepard, shop manager at Shackleton, said on Monday afternoon.

The damage was largely limited to “tools and machinery” and a power control box which “shorted out” on the second floor, caused by water, Shepard said.

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The only piece of furniture that was damaged was a bunk bed on the third floor that Shephard said he was finishing. “It was right next to the fire and the firemen soaked it so the drawers underneath it got soaked. So I’ll have to remake those,” he said.

The fire broke out after employees had left for the day and no one was inside the ShackletonThomas portion of the building, according to Shepard.

“Reports from bystanders that the smoke was heaviest on the Route 4 side” of the building led Bridgewater firefighters to request a second alarm “to bring in additional mutual aid for a working fire,” the Bridgewater Fire Department said.

State fire investigators at the scene on Monday were still investigating the cause of the fire, but Shackleton said in a social media post that they are looking into the possibility it was caused by “maybe lithium batteries. We don’t know.”

Showroom floor items “were not damaged” and “we plan to have furniture production back up and running in two weeks” while an end-of-month sale remains scheduled as planned, Shackleton said.

“It was a year ago in July that I was down in the basement fixing all the machinery,” Shepard reflected on Monday. “It’s ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” he said good-humoredly, referring to the 1993 Bill Murray movie about a man trapped in a repeating cycle of a day’s events.

Contact John Lippman jlippman@vnews.com.