Flames gut part of historic Villa Teresa mansion in Stanislaus

Flames quickly spread through the back of the historic 1929 Villa Teresa Italian mansion Sunday night on Stanislaus Circle.

Ken Gozur and his wife, Ginger Collins-Gozur, were watching “60 Minutes” on their lanai when Gozur heard a pop and noticed a flash in the corner of the adjoining sun room.

“We’re very lucky because within 30 to 45 seconds this entire thing was a ball of frames,” he said Monday, looking through the blackened palladium arched windows at the charred furnishings.

He ran from the outdoor living room onto the patio, and his wife ran to the kitchen to call 911.

“I was yelling to him to get the dogs. We weren’t even sure where the dogs were,” Collins-Gozur said.

Flames, likely burning the drapes, were shooting about two feet up from the floor in the back of the large television.

The couple tried to grab a watering hose and fire extinguisher, but the flames were too ferocious.

“It was just like roaring waves of red lava, like you see on TV,” Collins-Gozur said. “It had nowhere to go, and it just started going up the staircase.”

One of the dogs ran and hid behind the bushes next to the pool, but another, Bella, was nowhere to be found.

Firefighters discovered her on the kitchen floor, apparently overcome with smoke.

“They tried to revive her. They worked about seven to 10 minutes. They had oxygen trying to revive her, but they couldn’t,” Collins-Gozur said.

Monday morning, fire scene tape roped off their outdoor room where only two of six pillars are left holding up the heavy tile roof.

“If the firefighters hadn’t gotten here so quickly, we would have lost the whole house,” Gozur said.

The fire made it into the breakfast room, kitchen and spiral staircase in the center of the house.

Villa Teresa was featured on multiple tours of historic homes, including the Stanislaus Christmas tour in 2013.

The house was designed by Philip Trammell Shutze in the opulence of the Roaring ‘20s.

The black smoke from the fire has obscured some of the work of renowned Italian painter Athos Menaboni that graces the walls of the breakfast room and ceiling of the front library.

The dining room’s silk wallpaper commissioned by Shutze and hand painted in France did not burn but will require delicate cleaning and restoration.

Collins-Gozur said they always tried to maintain the splendor of the house and had plans to do more with the decor before the fire.

She’s confident they will restore it to its glory.

“They do magnificent things now,” she said.

Macon-Bibb County fire investigator Lt. Ben Gleaton is investigating the cause of the fire.

This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 4:59 PM.