Fire destroys part of Paul Newman's camp for ill children

A fire on Friday evening destroyed a large section of Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children in Connecticut.

Jimmy Canton, the chief executive of the camp in Ashford, said it appears no one was injured in the blaze, which was reported to fire officials through an automatic fire alarm just before 5 p.m. He said buildings housing the camp's store and arts and crafts, woodshop and cooking programs were destroyed.

“Although the cause of the fire is unknown at this time, what is known is that The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp is a community devoted to hope and healing,” Canton said in a statement. “We will get through this in the way that we always have and always will — as a family.”

Tom Borgman, the deputy chief of the Ashford Volunteer Fire Department, said the fire destroyed two buildings, including a large structure that was made to look like the center of an old western town. Different sections of the wood-frame building were constructed to look like separate buildings, housing different programs, he said.

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(Danbury News Times)