From the ashes: Rebuilding after fire on Cottage Lane

Nancy Allam remembers how her cat woke her from sleep while flames tore through her Cottage Lane home last winter. 

Allam escaped, but her pet did not. An urn now holds Kiki’s ashes on the mantel of Allam’s temporary home. 

Allam lost her pet, her house, and almost all her belongings on the night of January 30, 2025. 

She’s spent much of the past year navigating the emotions of this loss — and the frustrations of local bureaucracy — as she tries to rebuild. 

“It’s been brutal,” she told The Acton Bridge, and she acknowledged, “I have some rough moments.” But, she said, “We have some wonderful people helping us.”

Allam remembers trying in vain to douse the overnight fire with a shower hose before firefighters arrived. She left a cage outside the front door for days in hopes that Kiki would turn up.

Crews found her cat’s remains as they demolished what was left of the house. “It’s nice to have closure,” Allam said. 

She said investigators traced the fire to an electrical plug in the living room. 

Allam, a real estate agent, said she was representing the owner of the house next door. No one had rented the space, and she moved in. 

Allam fell four months behind schedule on her rebuilding effort, she said, due to the regulatory process. 

Although the fire badly damaged Allam’s original house, the 1887 two-bedroom was still subject to Acton’s Demolition Review Bylaw. Allam had to apply to the Historical Commission, which deemed the structure “not historically significant” and allowed its removal, town Senior Planner Ann Clifford told The Bridge.

The commission reviewed Allam’s permit “within a few weeks,” Clifford said, and “there were no questions about jurisdiction or delays on demolition.”

Allam appeared before the Select Board in October seeking permission to remove a tree that straddled her property line. “It’s a beautiful tree,” she said, but construction “would be easier” if officials approved taking it down. 

Select Board Chair Mark Howell agreed the tree seemed “out of scale,” and the board backed removal.

“Hallelujah,” Allam whispered as she stood up from the applicant’s table. 

Building back

Affordable housing advocates often bemoan “tear-downs” — houses that builders buy and demolish to make way for larger homes. 

Most of the single-family homes and condos on Cottage Lane date to the 1800s and have 1,400 to 1,800 square feet of living space, town records show. 

Allam said she could have sold her lot to someone “who might have built a bigger house,” but she wasn’t ready to leave Acton. Her new house will be about the same size as the original, she said. 

She hopes to move in this summer. In the meantime, she’s grateful to an army of supporters:

• A nearby friend gave her a place to stay for a few weeks. 
• Another took her to TJMaxx in Bedford to buy new clothes. 
• A GoFundMe campaign netted nearly $10,000 in donations. 
• Facebook Marketplace yielded a bounty of free furniture. 
• Neighbors helped dig out her rented house after last month’s massive snowstorm. 

Her insurance company recently said it would stop covering her rent, Allam said, but her landlord is letting her stay. “We’ve come to terms,” she said.

Moving on

Allam spread illustrations of her new home on a table one recent afternoon. Bowls that survived the fire sat in a nearby cabinet. 

Nirvana music at one point blared from a radio in her living room. “I’m more of a Led Zeppelin gal,” she said.

The day that workers found her cat, Allam was relieved to see that Kiki’s body hadn’t burned. The cat died of smoke inhalation, Allam said.

Allam had Kiki cremated and put the ashes on her mantel. She plans to get another cat once she finally moves into her new house.

Allam said it’s hard to believe that crews will soon start building the frame of the new home. 

The ordeal “has been a challenge,” she said. But as sparrows darted through a bush outside her rental home window, she said she’s happy to keep her spot in this corner of town. 

“The neighbors here are just to die [for],” she said.