Early in January, Kathie Tully will head off to her new home in southeastern Massachusetts, ending some ten decades of Tully family ownership of 34 Lonsdale Street, Dorchester, the site of an earth-shattering event some 27 years ago.

In the early morning hours of June 26, 1987, a small Piper Seneca airplane, the pilot its lone occupant, broke out of the mist and low clouds over Lonsdale Street and crashed into No. 34, setting off a conflagration that destroyed not only the Tully home but also the homes of the Knaubers and the Byrneses on either side of it.

In the aftermath, three residents, including Kay Tully, age 80, were hospitalized, three families and their tenants were homeless, ten parked cars were demolished, and several nearby dwellings suffered extensive damage.

The crash, with damages put at $2 million, took only one life, that of the pilot, Peter Covich, a 21-year-old from Nashua, N.H., who was transporting bundles of a financial newspaper from New Jersey to Boston for Cash Air Inc. of Lawrence.

In a report issued on Oct. 25, 1988, 16 months after the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board assigned pilot error as the probable cause of the accident, citing “spatial disorientation” by the pilot, lack of attention to “procedures and directives, lack of total pilot experience in type of aircraft,” and the dark night with its fog and low ceiling.

The homes were rebuilt with help from many sources and some of the families found themselves making mortgage payments again.

“It’s just time,” said Tully of her move. She is a retired special education teacher who still puts in full shifts as a volunteer for a number of non-profit institutions. “I have a lot to do to sort out memories that go back so far.”