Fire breaks out in Hingham home built by Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandfather

By Lauren Dezenski, Globe Correspondent

Fire officials are investigating what caused a blaze to erupt Thursday evening in a historic Hingham home belonging to a great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln.

The Hingham Fire Department received a call just after 10 p.m. reporting a fire at the Samuel Lincoln house, which was built in 1721. Fire officials were able to respond quickly, extinguishing the fire, which was contained to one room on the first floor, Fire Chief Mark Duff said.

The family living at the North Street home managed to escape unharmed. Though the house sustained smoke damage and many of the windows on the home’s first floor were broken, Duff said the damage would be easily repairable. Duff said he believed the fire was started by accident.

“This was a combination of good training, good staffing, aggressive firefighting, and a little bit of luck,” Duff said.

The two-story clapboard home was purchased by its current owners in 2010 for just shy of $1 million, according to assessor records. It sits on property purchased in 1649 by Samuel Lincoln. It has housed seven generations of Lincolns, according to the historic marker at the home.