Horrible news. And also tragic irony that Richard Cary, who resided there and lost his wife to the fire, is a retired architect who has been actively engaged in Tuftonboro committee plans to upgrade the town's fire-fighting facilities.
I'm not sure why it took 13 minutes for the first fire trucks to arrive after receiving the call. The Mirror Lake station is barely a mile, five minutes or less, from the Barber Pole house, but must be that no full-time firefighters based there. Here are a few relevant links; if the cause isn't reported in the press in due time, a call to the Tuftonboro Fire Dept. might produce an answer.
http://www.unionleader.com/article/2...WS07/121119333
http://www.tuftonboro.org/Pages/Tuft...ildings/mirror
http://www.tuftonboro.org/Pages/Tuft...scueBldg/recom
http://www.tuftonboro.org/Pages/Tuft...inutes2012.pdf