ORANGE — The single-family house at 34 Mechanic St. sits quiet, nestled a stone’s throw from the North Quabbin region’s only Gilded Age mansion and a short walk from the intersection that connects Orange’s four main streets.
It’s a tranquility that stands in stark contrast to the chaotic scene that unfolded 10 years ago on March 5, when a billowing second-floor fire claimed the lives of 8-year-old Victoria Rose Gaignard and 6-year-old Leena Shea Ciolino. The tragedy forever altered two families and devastated Franklin County’s easternmost town, which has about 7,600 residents.
“It was certainly something that affected the entire community,” said James Young Jr., who was Orange’s fire chief at the time.
He recalled how locals rallied around the victims’ families to offer support and how grief counselors were made available to their schoolmates. A makeshift memorial of stuffed toys, flowers and notes was soon set up at the scene and kept growing over the following days.
Priscilla Gaignard, Victoria’s grandmother and guardian, marveled at people’s generosity and mentioned that Peter and Candy Cross allowed her to stay in their house for two weeks after the fire, until she was ready to enter her own home again.
“The community was so wonderful,” she said. “I do appreciate the way the community came to our rescue, to build us up.”
Jake Wark, public information officer for the state Department of Fire Services, said an investigation by the Orange Fire and Police departments, the State Police fire investigators assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, and State Police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office concluded that the blaze began in the closet of a second-floor bedroom, near the front of the house. Investigators, however, could not determine how it started.
Fire departments from Northfield, Turners Falls, Warwick, Erving, New Salem, Athol, Phillipston and Royalston also responded. Leena’s father, Vinny Ciolino, was severely burned trying to save the girls.
Young, who last month became fire chief in Londonderry, New Hampshire, remembered the heroic actions of the elder Ciolino and his fellow firefighters.
“They were battling their way through fire to get up to the second floor and they did everything they could. They got up there quickly and extinguished a bunch of fire. The injuries were too severe at that point,” Young said. “Obviously, it was difficult for our department. When something like that happens, it really affects the first responders who respond to the scene. And, sometimes, no matter what you do, it’s not enough.”
Young also recalled how people dropped off food and other things for first responders as a gesture following the fire.
Priscilla Gaignard was in New York City for her daughter’s art show that fateful weekend and left her granddaughter with the Ciolino family, because she feared having to keep track of an 8-year-old in the big city. She received a phone call informing her of Victoria’s death and immediately returned to Orange. Gaignard explained that earlier that day, Leena’s mother had taken the girls to a hands-on workshop for children at Home Depot and to see the movie “Zootopia” before returning home to prepare dinner and get ready for a party in Turners Falls. The girls had gone upstairs to find costumes for the party.
Gaignard said she has fallen out of touch with Leena’s family, and attempts by the Greenfield Recorder to reach the parents were unsuccessful.
In grieving the death of her granddaughter, a passionate dancer and student at The Dance Studio in Orange, Gaignard started the Victoria Rose Scholarship Fund, which collects money to enable qualifying children to enroll in dance classes. Gaignard recalled how Victoria frequently asked her to pay so her friends could take dance lessons, but that was unaffordable.
Donations can be mailed to the Victoria Rose Scholarship Fund, 34 North Main St., Suite 2, Orange, MA 01364. The money is used to cover registration fees, lessons, costumes and shoes. Anyone who is interested must fill out an application and meet the guidelines. More information is available on the fund’s Facebook page at facebook.com/VictoriaRoseScholarship.
Gaignard said the fund has a committee that meets at members’ houses every month.
“We’re still going strong,” she said.
The Victoria Rose Scholarship Fund is organizing a Dancing Dream Gala at the Ellinwood Country Club at 1928 Pleasant St. in Athol from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. Tickets cost $65 and include a dinner provided by Black Crow Catering, music, a cash bar, a raffle and a silent auction. Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/DancingDreamGala.
Ingrid Schatz, who has owned The Dance Studio since buying it from her mother in 2013, said Gaignard first approached her with the idea about a week after the fire, and donation information was included in the obituary.
“I think it’s incredible to see how the fund has solidified into a really strong group of people who are so committed to keeping the memory and spirit of Victoria alive,” she said. “It’s opened doors for students who might not have an opportunity to dance.”
Schatz said her studio plunged into deep grief after the fire and she brought in grief counselors to help her students.
“The whole community was really struggling,” she recalled. “I couldn’t get out of bed, except to drive myself to the studio.”
Schatz said she has known the Gaignard family since she was in high school in the 1980s.
“I’m not even sure where to begin — Victoria was a real spitfire. She was the kind of student who made everyone smile the moment she walked in,” she said. “She had a truly wonderful sense of humor, a big personality, and she kind of had a whimsical way about her that made everyone laugh. But she also kept us on our toes. Our dance family loved her — still does.”
Gaignard also said her granddaughter was mature for her years and loved people of all ages, so much so that she would take her to a local nursing home to meet with the elderly residents. She also said Victoria loved collecting rocks, and enjoyed washing and drying the specimens to “place them beautifully wherever she wanted to.”
Gaignard recalled how when she eventually worked up the strength to enter Victoria’s bedroom for the first time after the fire, she found 13 rocks that had been placed carefully under her pillow. She now crafts “heart stones,” which are sold at 17 South Main St. in Orange. Proceeds go to the Victoria Rose Scholarship Fund.
Tom Smith, former Selectboard chair and the office manager at Witty’s Funeral Home, said handling a child’s services is the most difficult part of the job, but he admires how Gaignard turned her grief into something beautiful.
“I can’t even imagine how hard it must be, to lose a granddaughter at that young of an age,” he said. “And that’s a pain that never goes away, when it’s a child.”
