‘I lost everything in the fire’: Boscawen fire survivor struggles to find shelter following loss of home

Less than two days after a fire engulfed Gary Bailey’s Boscawen home, he found himself in downtown Concord struggling to piece together where he would spend another cold night.

“I have no clothes; I have no jacket to wear,” Bailey, 48, said on Wednesday afternoon. “I lost everything in the fire.”

Bailey spent his first night after the fire at a friend’s house in Penacook, but the friend is not allowed to have long-term overnight guests. With $350 from the Red Cross, he reasoned he could spend two nights at a hotel. But after that, he didn’t know what to do.

“I’m just trying to figure out where I’m going to go from here,” he said. “I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have anywhere to live.”

The fire that destroyed Bailey’s home of more than three decades also took the life of his friend, Ronald Fowler, whom Bailey remembered as “a really good guy.” Two other friends survived.

The Office of the Fire Marshal continues to investigate the cause of the Monday night blaze, which also destroyed an adjoining garage. Boscawen Fire Chief Tim Kenney said his “best guess” was that the fire started there.

Bailey and his two surviving friends said they smelled burning plastic before they saw the flames. The fire department received an emergency call at 9:42 p.m.

Firefighters from Concord’s Manor Station in Penacook were first on scene and conducted what Kenney described as a “remarkable” rescue attempt.

This was the first fatal fire in Boscawen in several years, Kenney said. In 2025, the state experienced 14 other fire-related deaths, according to Tyler Dumont, the strategic communications administrator for the Department of Safety.

Before the fire, Bailey was already grappling with tragedy. About a month and a half ago, his mother died.

 “One bad thing after another is happening,” he said. “It seems like it never gets better.”

On Wednesday, he was working on getting a new set of keys from the car dealership for his Nissan Altima, which remained outside of his Gage Street house, he said.

He was unaware of an online fundraiser that had been launched to support him.

In addition to grieving the loss of Fowler, Bailey was mourning his dog, Spaz, who died in the fire.

“I just want my dog back,” he said, “but it’s never going to happen.”

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