Cabin burns at Newman Lake

About 4 a.m. Monday, an explosion woke Carol Reyes at her house on the east side of Newman Lake. Outside, she saw flames shooting 100 feet into the air “just like a geyser,” she said, scorching trees within spitting distance of her house.

“I felt like we were in the middle of it,” Reyes said.

She called 911, and about 20 of Newman Lake’s 35 volunteer firefighters helped put out flames.

Two people in their summer home at the time made it out safely, said Deputy Fire Chief Toni Halloran.

Two engines and three support vehicles helped contain the fire in the tree-shaded cluster of houses off East Newman Lake Drive.

Only part of one room remained standing in the house that burned, with the rest of the structure leveled and still smoking in the afternoon.

A storage building belonging to another property owner also burned, as did a patch of hillside behind the house.

The trunks of several trees were scorched, but firefighters kept the flames from spreading to the neighborhood’s tree cover or setting more buildings ablaze.

“It had the potential to be more than it was,” said Halloran.

The cause hasn’t been determined, but Halloran said the department believes it started on or under the porch.

Reyes said she saw propane tanks on fire after she heard the explosion.

She said a house that used to stand on the same lot burned down on New Year’s Day 1974.