— By Eric Francis, Daybreak Correspondent

2/21/25

SHARON, VT

A life-long Sharon resident is believed to have died after his house caught fire Thursday morning on Route 14. Hours later, as the sun began to set, a White River Junction father and son—and their 18-year-old pit bull—had a close call but managed to escape their burning home largely unharmed.

A dozen Upper Valley fire departments were kept busy by the fires, which began at 8:30 a.m. when neighbor Nina Newcity Gates drove by Galen Mudgett, Jr.’s residence just north of the Sharon/Hartford town line and noticed an unusual amount of white smoke coming from Mudgett’s large two-and-a-half story wooden house.

“I was headed to Sharon to get stuff and at first it looked like something was venting, but it just seemed too much,” Newcity Gates recalled, explaining why she stopped to call 911.

Hartford Deputy Chief Jason Czora was the first to reach the scene. He found most of the house already engulfed in flames.

A rapidly spreading blaze brought a two-alarm mutual aid response to Route 14 in Sharon first thing Thursday morning but the homeowner did not make it out. All photos © Eric Francis

Sharon Chief Nathan Potter arrived with his crews a short time later and took over the operation, with a second-alarm’s worth of tankers and other fire equipment arriving to help from the towns of Hartford, Norwich, Lebanon, Pomfret, Teago, South Woodstock, Tunbridge, South Royalton and East Barnard.

It quickly became apparent that Mudgett, whose car was in the driveway, was unaccounted for—and hours later, firefighters overhauling what was left of the house discovered a body, which was removed to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy and formal identification, which is still pending.

South Royalton’s volunteer firefighters went out onto the White River in 14-degree temperatures and cut a hole in the ice to supply water to the effort with a portable pump.

Mudgett, an Air Force veteran, served in several positions over the years in Sharon, including as the town’s financial manager, moderator, and head lister.

After spending six hours at the scene assisting Sharon, Hartford firefighters were just getting back to their usual routine when another fire was called in shortly before 4:30 pm on Crystal Place, a small residential side street a stone’s throw across Hartford Avenue from the White River Coop grocery store.

After finishing with the Sharon fire, Hartford firefighters were called out to a home on Crystal Place, where homeowner Frank Watson was able to pull his 18-year-old son out of the burning house through a window.

“I was just in my bedroom and I heard something and then I thought I smelled smoke but I wasn’t sure because I was only half awake and then I realized there was flames coming out of my basement and I was like ‘Oh crap!’,” homeowner Frank Watson recalled.

“I ran back into my bedroom because I couldn’t get out the front door and I was just trying to figure out where to get out, so I ran and dove through the window. The first thing on my mind was my (18-year-old) son and so I immediately went over there to his room and started smashing on the window and shouted ‘Cruz! Cruz!’ and he came over to the window and got on my shoulders and I dragged him out of the house.” Firefighters were also able to rescue Watson’s 18-year-old pit bull, Buddy.

Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Jason Czora managed to get a harness onto 18-year-old pitbull Buddy and lead him over to an emergency vehicle, where Frank Watson and his 18-year-old son Cruz were waiting out of the element and reunited them with Buddy.

Watson’s “high school sweetheart of 33 years,” Tina Beaugaurd, was working at her job as a pharmacy technician when the fire broke out and she rushed home to find that firefighters from Hartford, Lebanon, Hanover and Windsor had already knocked down the fire, which began in the basement, leaving the house intact but filled with acrid smoke.

“This is not how I wanted to renovate,” Beaugaurd said after learning that the small single-story house could eventually be restored but most of the contents were going to be a loss because of the smoke and water damage.

The couple, who have three sons (two of whom are currently living with them) were being helped Thursday evening by the American Red Cross.