A quiet Needham neighborhood woke Christmas morning to a gray sky and the sting of a terrible loss in the air.
A 21-year-old woman was killed early Wednesday in a fire at 28 Woodworth Road that took 75 firefighters from departments across the region seven hours to bring under control.
On Thursday morning, a faint snow fluttered down as families nearby watched Christmas movies, prepared holiday meals and walked outside with their dogs. Cars driving down South Street, a tight, winding road lined with stately homes and expansive lawns, slowed to a crawl at the foot of Woodworth Road.
Noticing a “Do Not Enter” sign propped up by Needham Police, drivers craned their necks and continued onward.
What they couldn’t see from South Street were the burnt remains of the home where firefighters responded around 5 a.m. Wednesday, two hours before sunrise on the morning of Christmas Eve, to find heavy smoke and flames billowing from the three-story structure.
“I don’t know what to say,” Walter “Budge” Upton, a neighbor, said Thursday morning as he surveyed the damage. “Just a sad, sad moment. Our hearts go out to them.”
Upton was at his South Street home Wednesday morning, two houses and just a few hundred feet away, when he heard the commotion of sirens. He didn’t think much of it at first. He lives just over a mile from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Needham, and emergency vehicles passing by are no anomaly.
As he heard more and more sirens, Upton realized something was wrong. He stepped outside to see thick, white smoke streaming upward from his neighbors’ home and over the wooded area’s tall pines.
The first responders on scene tried to enter the home, but were rebuffed by a raging fire that spread quickly, the State Fire Marshal’s office said Wednesday.
Two adults who were inside the home escaped. A third, the young woman, was found dead inside.
Authorities have not yet publicly named her. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
“On behalf of the Needham Fire Department, I want to express our deepest condolences to the family that lost a loved one today,” Needham Fire Chief Thomas Conroy said Wednesday. “It’s just a heart-wrenching event for them and the community.”
Firefighters from Boston, Brookline, Dedham, Natick, Newton, Norwood, Milton, Wellesley and Westwood provided mutual aid during the four-alarm blaze.
Upton said he did not know the family well and had interacted with them only a few times. He had lived nearby since 1976.
The six-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot home at 28 Woodworth Road was built in 2014. It is assessed at $2.5 million, according to town property records.
Apart from the periodic driver slowing to peer up Woodworth Road, the street was quiet around 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
Just a smattering of snow remained from Tuesday’s small storm. A bright red cardinal hopped through a low bush. The temperature was just above freezing and a faint smell of charred wood hung in the air. One lone runner jogged by in a Patriots hat.
In front of the burnt home, a Needham Police cruiser sat parked with its headlights on.
Yellow police tape guarded the edge of the property, swaying and rippling in the wind.
The wood and stone home was set back from the road, separated by a lawn muddied by hundreds of bootprints and a few tire treads.
A Christmas wreath, a few feet wide, hung from the second floor above the entrance way. Two other wreaths framed the front door. Strands of Christmas lights lined the edge of the roof, some of them tattered and hanging off the home. A silver reindeer decoration stood on the left of the lawn, beside another tipped on its side.
The torched shells of two cars sat just outside a garage on the right side of the home, where the fire had ripped through part of the roof.
Some of the home’s windows were smashed. The front door was open, revealing a dark first floor, with the pines in the backyard visible through windows on the other side.
A few snowflakes drifted down and settled on the lawn.
Investigators from the Needham Police and Fire departments are working with Massachusetts State Police troopers assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office and Norfolk District Attorney’s office to determine how the fire began.
“We haven’t determined the cause of this fire yet, but we know that tragedies like this one are most common in the winter months,” State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine said Wednesday. “Please be sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every level of your home and a practiced escape plan in the event of an emergency.”
