Firefighters cut through the roof to access the blaze in the attic, as seen from the Allen Street side of the house.
A 28-year-old Shrewsbury man was hospitalized after a fire tore through a Patterson Avenue home during a thunderstorm early Friday morning.
The blaze was the second major fire battled by borough volunteers and those from neighboring towns in less than a week. Last Friday, a fire reported to be electrical in origin destroyed the Memory Bowling lanes on Newman Springs Road, just two blocks from the scene of this morning’s blaze.
Smoke pours through the roof of the house at the corner of Patterson Avenue and Allen Street.
Firefighters were still battling the blaze at 2:30a, more than an hour after they were called to the scene at 44 Patterson. Property records show the house is owned by a Gordon Litwin.
Fire Chief Pete Gibson said it was too early to say if the house was hit by lightning. Neighbor Mike Zazzarino and others said they heard a sizzling noise shortly before the house went up in flames.
Gibson said the victim was a 28-year-old man, but was unable to release more information immediately. Neighbors identified the victim as Matt Accera.
Neighbor Carol McLoughlin said the fire was the second at the house in about 15 years. The last one forced the same family that lives there now to relocate for nearly a year while the house was rebuilt, she said.
Firefighters at the front door to the house, above, and attacking the blaze from an aerial ladder, below.
