$4 million mansion burns down after inhabitants deep-fry turkey in the garage

A $4 million mansion burned down after those living in it tried to deep-fry a turkey in the garage on Thanksgiving.

Last week, Americans celebrated the annual Thanksgiving Day holiday, where it’s traditional for turkey to be served as the centre-piece of a big meal.

But for one family in Weston, Connecticut, the day ended in disaster after the house caught on fire when they tried to cook their turkey.

Just before 4pm on Thursday (28 November), firefighters from the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department were alerted to an incident via an automatic fire alarm.

In a post on Facebook, the fire department said a call reporting the fire quickly followed. When they arrived, the garage was “fully involved” in the fire and the flames had spread into more of the house.

The fire even grew hot enough to melt the plastic on some of the cars parked in the drive.

“It accelerated really rapidly,” John Pokorny, Weston’s fire marshal, told local publication CT Insider. “When we arrived, the whole garage end of the house was on fire – like a third of the house.”

The firefighters fought the blaze for more than 16 hours until it was extinguished, but not before it had destroyed the home, worth approximately $4 million, making it completely uninhabitable.

Initial reports suggest the cause of the fire was a turkey fryer that had been set up in the garage.

“This fire was determined to be caused by a turkey fryer inside the garage. A stark reminder to all about the dangers of frying turkeys,” the fire department said.

20 people were in the house at the time, but thankfully no injuries were reported.

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