A Bristol family lost use of their home but no one was injured when a fire consumed a garage at 3 Colonial Road and spread into the attic of the house on Sunday morning.

The fire was first reported at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 1. When firefighters arrived, flames had engulfed the detached garage, and the heat was beginning to melt the vinyl siding on the house sitting just a few feet away. It had also spread into the upper level of the white Cape Cod-style structure.

Fire Chief Michael DeMello said the first crew on scene was able to quickly knock down the fire within the garage, before firefighters turned their attention to the house itself. To reach the fire spreading through the roof and attic, they attacked it from the outside and inside. Using the town’s ladder truck, they accessed the roof and cut a hole in it, while firefighters inside the house pulled down the ceiling on the second floor. That effort, combined with water flowing into the attic and cascading down on everything below, left the house uninhabitable and many of the family’s belongings and clothing destroyed.

“We had the garage fire knocked down within a couple of minutes,” the chief said. “After that, it got pretty labor intensive …  It requires a lot of work to pull down those ceilings to get at where the fire is spreading … We try to use as little water as possible, but it flows down into every nook and crevice in the house.”

Though firefighters knocked the flames down in the attic and prevented any further damage from flames, the combination of water and smoke damage left the house unsafe for occupancy.

Since then, Tanya and Michael Proulx have been receiving a wave of donations and support from the community. The Ladies Auxiliary of the Bristol Fire Department is helping the effort, as is family friend Cynthia Almeida, who launched a GoFundMe page to help get them back on their feet. According to Jennifer Mancieri of the Ladies Auxiliary, the family is doing well and feeling overwhelmed with the love, compassion and outreach from both strangers and friends and family.

Chief DeMello said the fire began from ashes left inside a plastic container in the garage. “You have to be careful when getting rid of ashes, and where you put them,” the chief said. “Even if you water them down, they can still reignite.”

Chief DeMello said more than 30 volunteer firefighters responded to the scene, and they had plenty of manpower. Warren and Portsmouth each sent an engine to Bristol to help cover the town while Bristol crews were on Colonial Road.