WARWICK — Officials Monday confirmed that Lucinda Seago, 42, and four of her children, ages 7, 9, 12 and 15, died in a fire at 405 Richmond Road Saturday.
Her husband, Scott Seago, survived the fire along with one of the couple’s five children, the Northwestern district attorney’s office said. The DA’s office did not identify the children.
Monday was the first business day since the fire. The schools were in session and Town Coordinator David Young carried on with his job.
Up the driveway of the home, yellow water tubes lay on the ground next to piles of ash. The home’s foundation and the stove remain intact. But there’s an arrangement of flowers, a rainbow lei and a wooden cross huddled around a white placard identifying the property as the The Old Whittemore Farm.
Locals speak of their pride in their fire department and Chief Ron Gates.
“On some level you know this is real but it just takes time to sort it out,” Young said. “(Scott Seago) survived with one of his five children and the clothes on his back.
“People have asked what can they do to help,” Young said in his office Monday afternoon. “Go sneak up on a Warwick firefighter and give him a hug.”
Young explained how the town has been working rapidly to help Seago and his daughter.
The town found five potential housing options but have settled on one, and Seago and his daughter will be moving on Wednesday. A member of the community has also volunteered to furnish the home.
“I got an email from a lady that I’m doing this unless you tell me to stop and I replied ‘go go go,’” Young said.
Others have purchased a cell phone for Scott Seago, who works in the IT industry. Donations can go to the family’s church in Turners Falls, Our Lady of Czestochowa. Funeral services are currently being arranged.
At school Monday, Pioneer Valley Regional School Superintendent Ruth Miller said the day went as normally as possible. Counselors were made available. One of the Seagos’ children attended Pioneer and others attended the Warwick Community School or were home schooled.
“Pioneer and Warwick teachers and staff did an excellent job of giving every student what they needed,” Miller said. “Pioneer Valley Regional School District is a wonderful place for students every day and today was no different.”
Young was grateful that the media relatively respected the requests of the town and family to withhold the names of the family members.
And Young knows that the community is continuing to come to grips with what happened.
“It’s just not quite real yet,” Young said. “We definitely haven’t unearthed all of our emotions and worked through them. We don’t quite know what’s next.”
Emergency responders were called to the scene of the three-alarm fire at about 12:45 a.m. Saturday. The first responders arrived within minutes, but the structure was engulfed in flames. According to Young, at least 16 departments provided assistance throughout the night. They drafted water from a nearby reservoir.
State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said over the weekend that early reports had the fire as having started in the kitchen’s wood stove, though the origin of the fire hasn’t been confirmed.
“This is a fire that started from an accidental cause,” Ostroskey said.
There were no updates on the investigation Monday.