By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Courtesy/Bruce Lemire This home at 8 Tipping Rock Road, Goffstown, was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at about 10:50 p.m. on Thursday, March 18. The house was destroyed but no one was hurt.

Help for the Hills family A community benefit pasta dinner and silent auction is being hosted by a Bedford nonprofit, Color My World: Kids Who Care. The benefit will take place Friday, April 14, 5 to 8 p.m., at Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown. Suggested donation is $10 for adults and $5 for children, with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated to the Hills family, who lost everything in a fire. Silent auction items are needed. If you can donate something or to RSVP for the dinner, contact Angela Hughes at 603-669-4766 or nhdraper@comcast.net.

A two-alarm fire ripped through a residence at 8 Tipping Rock Road on the night of Saturday, March 18, bringing about complete destruction to the home. Long-time Goffstown residents John and Marci Hills and their family, along with their mother Terri Hills, were left homeless.

Community members are now working to help the Hills family with a pasta dinner and silent auction to take place April 14 at Maple Avenue School.

No people or animals were reported hurt in the blaze, according to Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hurley.

The Hillses have four children – Jessie, Jack, Isabelle and Ellie.

“The most important thing is, the homeowner called us fast, because house fires can double in size every minute,” Hurley said.

The call of a possible structure fire came in at 10:25 p.m., with the homeowner reporting a strong odor of smoke from the basement, Hurley said. Goffstown firefighters arrived at the scene at 10:48 p.m., Hurley said.

Goffstown initially sent four trucks to fight the fire, finally upping that number to seven.

Manchester, Bedford and New Boston provided mutual aid, Hurley said. Each department sent one truck to fight the fire on site, and New Boston sent a truck to cover the Village fire station on Church Street and Manchester sent a second truck to cover the Pinardville station on Mast Road.

A total of 15 Goffstown firefighters battled the flames, along with four New Boston firefighters, four from Bedford and three from Manchester, Hurley said.

The firefighters staged an exterior attack against the fire, because the floors inside the home were destroyed by the time the first company arrived, Hurley said.

The fire was under control by 2 a.m., with engines using water from one pond on Tipping Rock Road and another pond on Stevens Drive to quench the flames, Hurley said.

The house is an older 66-foot by 30-foot structure, Hurley said. Although the damage to that house was total, Hurley said no neighboring properties were damaged in the fire.

The owners of the home could not be reached to comment by press time.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Hurley said. Though investigators have determined the fire place was in use at the time of the fire, they have not said whether the fireplace sparked the house fire.

Hurley also could not put a dollar amount to the damage of the home.