Picking up the pieces: Residents persevere after fire wrecks Oakhurst Manor
NORTHBRIDGE — Matthew Carr lost everything and he’s not sure what to do next.
Carr, 52, surveyed his ruined power tools strewn across the lawn outside the heavily damaged and condemned Oakhurst Manor on Hill Street.
Carr, who grew up in Worcester, recently moved into the historic manor. He’s an electrician by trade and was hired, he said, by the owner to do some work on the house. He didn't imagine a fire would destroy the manor and his tools that were stored in the basement.
But it happened.
An overnight blaze Friday tore through the home, firefighters engulfed it with water, the water pooled in the basement and Carr’s tools were ruined.
“I’m still trying to process what happened. It’s hard,” he said in an interview Monday.
Carr doesn't have insurance to cover his losses and was under the impression the manor’s owner had insurance to cover any unforeseen contingencies. According to online posts of Estate of Mind, an artists group that lived in the manor, owner Clarence Risher didn’t have insurance at the time of the fire, leaving Carr with this response when asked what he plans to do: “There needs to be a conversation,” with Risher.
No hard feelings
That doesn’t mean Carr holds a grudge against Risher. In fact, he said he’ll do whatever he can to help Risher and the others who lived in the manor.
Besides having no savings in the bank and uncertainty about the future, what’s also eating at Carr is disappointing his 10-year-old daughter, Grace. He said he was hired to help Risher restore the manor, built in 1890, to its original state and charged the owner less for his time then he normally does.
“I took the project on because I fell in love with it — the craftsmanship of the house,” said Carr. “It was going to be restored as it was first built. I wanted something to show my daughter.”
Another pile of destruction — and sadness
Next to Carr’s pile was another that belonged to Ron Woodall, who sometimes put his hand across his face to hide that he was close to bursting into tears.
Woodall, a divorced father with a pre-teen son and a 10-year-old daughter, lived in another house on the manor property, also owned by Risher. But Woodall’s unlucky fate was storing his family mementos and other keepsakes in the manor’s basement. Most were destroyed in the fire.
Some items were damaged including a handmade Father’s Day card from his son Tristyn when the child was 2 — today he’s 12. The card suffered water damage and is partially streaked with dark soot from last week's blaze.
It reads, “I’m Hooked on Daddy,” and when Woodall picked it up, he put his hand across his face to shield his overwhelming feelings of sadness,
“It’s tough,” he said, tears in his eyes.
Woodall’s college diplomas, family photos, World War II medals that belonged to his great-grandfather and his antiques catalogues are all ruined.
He’s a federal park ranger at West Hill Dam in Uxbridge and a certified arts and antiques appraiser. A lot of skills to possess, but they can’t bring back his items destroyed in the fire.
That hurts. So do the rumors that Woodall said are circulating online about those living in the manor.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation as of Tuesday afternoon, said a spokesman at the state Department of Fire Services. Monday the agency said it hadn't identified anything to suggest the fire was intentionally set.
Thankful for insurance and friends
While sadness is ever-present, Woodall is thankful. For one thing, he has insurance that he hopes will cover some of his losses. He also has friends including one who dropped by with a gift card to help his family weather the rocky times.
“Some care about me and the kids. It’s hard. It’s not easy,” he said.
It goes from bad to worse because Tuesday's rain and more forecast for later this week could soak any salvageable items from the fire. Monday, Curtis Burrowes was busy building canopies that will cover items worth saving from any rains coming from Mother Nature.
Like Woodall, Burrowes lives in the house behind the manor and said he’s a performance artist who wanted to continue his work at the manor. He arrived there three weeks ago.
“We’re not sure what the future holds,” said Burrowes. “It’s on my mind. What happens here? Will there be another owner?”
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Residents persevere after fire wrecks Oakhurst Manor
