Fire Destroys Vacant Home on Garry Drive

A fire tore through a Garry Drive home on Tuesday morning, destroying the vacant home for sale and causing a minor elbow injury to a firefighter. The firefighter was treated and released from the hospital.

The cause of the fire at the one-floor, ranch-style house is undetermined, according to fire officials.

“It’s still under investigation,” said Assistant Chief Chuck Licata.

The East Haven Fire Department responded to the fire just after midnight and cleared the scene at about 3 a.m. The fire marshal stayed on until about 7 a.m. to investigate the fire.

This is the fourth building to burn in East Haven this month. In early July, a to a Main Street building and a separate incident destroyed a .

Last week, on July 20, the house at 15 Benjamin Road caught fire at approximately 11 p.m. The house is vacant.

Licata said that fire appears to have started in the den area. It was not deemed suspicous, he added.

The owners were not home at the time; the fire was reported by a neighbor. The fire was fully involved when firefighters arrived, Licata said.

"The guys did a wonderful job knocking the fire down," he said.

As for the volume of fires this month, he said it's just the nature of the job.

"We can never determine exactly why fires are becoming more prevalent," Licata said. "They do run in spurts like that."

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect that there have been four fires in town this month, not three as was originally reported.