Montville — A house fire on Route 82 Thursday morning left a dog dead and the home “severely damaged,” according to Oakdale Fire Company Chief Gary Murphy.  

One occupant of the home was evaluated by personnel on the scene and did not need to be treated.

The fire was reported by Chase Bowers, a first-year student at Three Rivers Community College, who was driving along Route 82 when he said he spotted smoke coming out of the front door of 486 Route 82 and saw a woman, Charlotte Wildowsky, near the doorway.

Wildowsky lived in the home with her husband, William, who was not in the house at the time.

As he called the fire department, he said he saw “three or four blue pops” along the electrical line on the right side of the house. He said the line later broke and dropped to the ground.

According to Murphy, the fire was reported about 11:11 a.m.

The house is in the northwest area of Montville, far from the town’s fire department, and it took a while for firefighters to arrive on the scene, Murphy said.

“We were somewhat shorthanded at the beginning,” Murphy said.

Oakdale Volunteer Fire Company, Chesterfield Fire Company and Montville Fire Company arrived first, and they called for assistance from fire departments with tankers from Salem and Norwich.

The Mohegan Tribal Fire Department and Norwich Fire Department also sent their firefighter assistance and search teams.

The fire was contained about noon. There were no firefighter injuries.

“For the limited resource of people we had, the guys did a very good job for the amount of fire we had,” Murphy said.

Murphy said fire investigators will be working to determine the exact cause of the fire, but the department suspects it started on the left side of the building.

“We were thinking a tree branch may have fallen on the wire and started the fire but it could have been anything in that area,” Murphy said, speculating the blue popping that Bowers spotted was the power line arcing.

The fire caused burn damage to the second floor and first floor of the left side, and smoke damage on the right.

n.lynch@theday.com

Twitter: @_nathanlynch