Charlton winery fire is ruled arson

Charlton winery fire is ruled arson

By George Barnes and Craig S. Semon
Telegram &  Gazette Staff

Posted Aug. 5, 2015 at 3:49 PM
Updated at 10:50 PM

CHARLTON - A fire Sunday night that destroyed a winery at Charlton Orchards Farm & Winery has been ruled arson.

Jim DeSimone, a spokesman for the state Department of Fire Services, said state police investigators, after ruling out all accidental causes, determined the fire was deliberately set.

"We are asking the public's assistance in finding who did this," he said.

Signs have been posted on the Charlton Orchards property offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the anyone responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call the arson watch hotline at (800) 682-9229.

The fire late Sunday night destroyed the Obadiah McIntyre Farm Winery on the grounds of Charlton Orchards.

Nathan Benjamin Jr., managing member of Charlton Orchards Group LLC, said the state fire marshal’s office determined the fire started 30 feet east of the winery, above one of the old cow stalls.

“The fire marshal had said to me that when you eliminate all the obvious, the only thing you have is the inevitable,” Mr. Benjamin said. “And we eliminated that there is no electricity. There are no combustibles of any sort. There are no batteries. There’s no oil. There’s no gasoline. There was nothing there except for wood. Right where they said the fire started was a pile of broken apple boxes.”

In addition, Mr. Benjamin said surveillance videos on hard drives were destroyed in the fire. The hard drives were in Mr. Benjamin's office, which was in the winery building, he said.



“The drives were destroyed. The backup drives were destroyed. They couldn’t get an image off of anything,” Mr. Benjamin said. “If they were able to flood the room, they could have recovered it (the hard drives). Obviously, the computers and everything would have been damaged but the drives would have been recoverable.”

According to Fire Capt. Dean M. Babineau, the Fire Department received a call from the winery shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday for a “rekindle,” which, he said is very common. It was extinguished in 90 minutes, Capt. Babineau said.

A GoFundMe account for Charlton Orchards and Obadiah McIntyre Farm Winery has been set up with a $100,000 goal.

“It’s getting all kinds of people that I didn’t even know sending me money,” Mr. Benjamin said. “I got 137 emails last night (Tuesday night).”

Mr. Benjamin and his wife, Cathy Benjamin, addressed the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night about the Fire Department’s training, maintenance and leadership, as well as alleged faulty fire apparatus. Because of the budget process, two selectmen said, the board is painfully aware of the shortcomings of the budget.

Also at Tuesday’s selectmen's meeting, Town Administrator Robin L. Craver said she thinks that at this point neither Fire Chief Charles E. Cloutier Jr. and Assistant Fire Chief Curt J. Meskus nor people from the winery should speak to the press about incidents surrounding the fire. Rick Swensen, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, called Chief Cloutier Wednesday to make sure he followed that suggestion.

Selectmen said they will meet in a closed-door executive session Aug. 18 to look into matters surrounding the fire.