NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Police shut down a portion of Church Street on Saturday morning to investigate an apparent stabbing incident.

North Adams Police answered a call around 1 a.m. from a woman near Church Street reporting that someone had been stabbed.

Nearly half an hour later, police received another call that there was a stabbing and the victim was at 181 Church St. and had sustained serious injuries. The victim was transported to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

State Police investigators tapped off 185-187 Church St. and 181 Church St. and investigated outside and inside of the properties throughout Saturday morning.

The street finally opened again at 1:20 p.m.

The incident is under investigation.

This story will be updated when more information becomes available.

Complete write-thru at 6 p.m.

ADAMS, Mass. — Firefighters from around Northern Berkshire County spent Friday afternoon battling a stubborn structure fire at 72 Park St.

Flames could be seen shooting out from under the roof of the building, which houses Carolyn's Tax Service on the first floor and four apartments on the top two floors, where several young children lived.

It took several dozen firefighters more than an hour to contain the blaze that started in a kitchen on the third floor. Fire Chief Paul Goyette described the smokey blaze as "95 percent contained" about 4 p.m., nearly three hours after it was first reported.

No one was injured in the fire but an Adams firefighter was overcome by heat and taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Park Street was closed to traffic and motorists were detoured at Hoosac and Center streets. Some mutual aid units began leaving about 5:30.

Goyette said the call came in as an alarm activation at about 1:15 p.m. and, when firefighters arrived, they found a fire on a stove on the third floor.

"That fire was extinguished but it appeared to enter the attic through the ductwork," he said.

The building was occupied at the time but Goyette did not know how many people were in the building. Everyone was evacuated from the four apartments, and the building searched. A second search was also done to verify no one was inside. Two cats were removed and treated at the scene with oxygen and a third was found safe after the fire was out.

Heavy smoke roiled from the roof line, occasionally blanketing the town's main street in a smokey haze. Bystanders watched the action from the sidewalks as the street filled with personnel and equipment from seven different departments: Adams, North Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Dalton, Lanesborough and Williamstown. Yellow tape was strung along light posts and signs to keep people out of the way.

The Williamstown and Adams ladder trucks mounted a two-pronged water attack on the roof line and the attic of the three-story building, as flames licked out from the eaves.

North Adams and Adams ambulance services set up a rehab center on the lawn of the Adams Free Library to hydrate and cool firefighters rotated out from the action. State police and sheriff's deputies blocked the street from traffic.

"It took us a good hour to knock the fire down because we had to keep chasing," said Goyette. Above the attic, "we found three layers of attic plus we had to start opening up the roof. It was labor intensive. That was the reasoning for calling in a lot of mutual aid companies to get fresh people here to the staging area."

The temperature hovered around 80 degrees with an infrequent breeze. One firefighter at the base of the ladder truck was overcome by the heat and carefully removed by a swarm of firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

Carolyn and Thomas Chalifoux of Carolyn's Tax Service were on their way to their lake cabin in Vermont went they got the call in Bennington that the building was on fire.

"We turned around and came back," said Thomas Chalifoux, watching from the sidewalk. They were concerned about the computers and files in their offices, but Goyette said firefighters were able to cover everything with tarps.

"Things look good there, it doesn't look like they've lost anything," he said.

Other buildings nearby were emptied as well. Arlene Schneider of the Cutting Edge Salon in the building next door said she didn't know anything was going on until firefighters came in and told she had to evacuate.

Trevor Crombie, who bought the building also known as the Dawson Block in 2004, was at the scene.

A GoFundMe has been set up for one of the families displaced in the blaze. Holly Dix and Mike Burns and their three children were not home at the time but their cat was rescued. Another fundraising page has been set up for Marcus and Heather Moore and their two children.

Firefighters were tossing items out the attic, cutting open the roof and chasing hotspots by 4 p.m. The state fire marshal was being called in to the investigation and the building's occupants were not expected to be able to return. Goyette couldn't say what the damage was at this point. Or when the street would reopen.

"The Fire Department owns Park Street at this point."

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — An elderly Williamstown couple were arraigned Thursday afternoon in Berkshire Superior Court on charges of covering up a motor vehicle accident that severely injured their neighbor.

John T. Gould and Sally J. Gould of White Oaks Roads enter not-guilty pleas on a host of charges related to the Feb. 9 hit-and-run incident in which pedestrian Cheryl J. Leclaire, 54, was found injured on North Hoosac Road.

Leclaire was taken to Berkshire Medical Center with serious injuries after a passing motorist found her lying by the side of the road.

Sally Gould, 71, was allegedly driving the car that hit Leclaire and her husband allegedly aided her in covering up the incident.

Sally Gould entered a not-guilty plea on leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.

She and her husband, 69, both entered pleas of not guilty on single counts each of misleading a police officer or other person; conspiracy, to wit: misleading a police officer or other person; and conspiracy, to wit: filing a false motor vehicle claim; and two counts each of filing a false motor vehicle insurance claim.

Judge John A. Agostini released both Goulds on personal recognizance.

Police say that after Leclaire was struck on Feb. 9 while walking her dog, the Goulds gave false statements to investigators and filed false insurance claims. Those incidents are alleged to have occurred in Williamstown between Feb. 10 and Feb. 16. They were arrested in late February.

The investigation was conducted by members of the Williamstown Police Department and state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section.
 

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Police have charged an elderly woman for crashing her vehicle into two women and two children while they were crossing the roadway on Friday morning, according to Chief William Walsh.

At about 10:49 a.m., two women, along with an 11-month-old baby girl who was in a stroller and a 3-year-old girl, were crossing in a crosswalk on Main Street at Railroad Street. At the same time, an 87-year-old woman from Canaan, Conn., who was southbound on Main Street, failed to yield and struck all four, said police.

All four were injured and transported by ambulance to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield with non-life-threatening injuries.

The operator, who was the sole occupant of the car, was not injured. She was charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. She will be summonsed to court at a later date.

Great Barrington Police were assisted by the Fire Department, the Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance Squad, North Canaan (Conn.) Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the Sheffield Police Department and the Monterey Police Department.

The incident remains under investigation by the Great Barrington Police Department.