Plymouth Bureau

ASHLAND — A fire attributed to overloaded electrical circuits swept through a duplex apartment at 11 Washington St. late Monday evening, sending a nine-year-old boy to the hospital.

The boy, Garrett Beck, was treated for smoke inhalation at Speare Memorial Hospital and released Tuesday morning, according to his mother, Jennifer Beck.

She said she had worked on her computer until about 10:30 p.m. when she switched it off and went to bed. Sometime before midnight, her son’s screaming awakened her, she said, and she found the apartment filling with smoke.

Beck grabbed her son and met her mother, Jacqueline Weiner, in the hallway and the three of them ran out the front door. She said she went back into the building to call 911 and attempted to go to the second floor to find her two kittens.

Unable to find the kittens in the thickening smoke, she said she again left the house to await the fire trucks.

Lakes Region Mutual Fire Assistance notified area departments at 12:28 a.m. sending fire, ambulance and rescue units from Plymouth, Holderness, New Hampton, Bridgewater and Campton-Thornton to join Ashland Fire Department in fighting the blaze while Center Harbor fire units covered Ashland’s station.

Fire investigator Pete Paulsen of the State Fire Marshal’s Office credited fast response by numerous departments with bringing the fire quickly under control and limiting the damage. The departments were back in service by 2:45 a.m.

Three Red Cross disaster action team members also responded to the fire in Ashland. The Red Cross provided family services including lodging and food to those affected.

"It’s really not too bad," Paulsen said following an inspection Tuesday morning. "Certainly not as bad as it could have been." He said the both apartments suffered significant smoke damage, and there was charring and water damage to Beck’s apartment.

"At least my piano was saved," Beck said through tears Tuesday morning.

As for the two two-month-old kittens, they escaped unhurt on their own.