Pittsfield Fire Guts Home, Sends Occupant to Hospital
The building is considered a total loss.
"We got here, there was already heavy fire. The whole back of the building was involved and it was pushing out the front porch. So the whole first floor was involved," said Fire Chief Thomas Sammons. "Both stories were just blown."
The balloon-frame structure allowed the fire to get into the attic of the two-story home before firefighters could cut it off, he said, which compounded the problem.
Linda Boyd was the only one home at the time and had been able to flee the structure. There apparently was a question of some pets in the building that the chief was unable to answer. Boyd was treated on scene and transported to Berkshire Medical Center with smoke inhalation. As of Thursday night, according to Deputy Chief Daniel Garner, she had been discharged and she and her adult son are being assisted by the American Red Cross.
The single-family home dates to around 1930.
Neighbor Michael Connors said he could see flames as he turned on to Cromwell and was calling 911 when he saw the Boyd just outside of the enclosed front porch.
"I just pulled up and the place was on fire and I helped her, I got her off the step and brought her over here," Connors said. "I just jumped out of the car and went over to help her. It was so hot over there. And then another couple came up behind me ... They helped me carry her across the street."
The whole back of the house appeared to be in flames, he said, and then it was coming out through the front windows.
A section of Cromwell, a well-tended street of mostly single-family homes, was expected to be closed at the scene for another few hours as firefighters wrapped up their work.
Sammons, who had been at the scene from the start, said the initial response was three engines, a command vehicle and two ambulances from County and possibly and Action Ambulance. There was a slight delay in getting another engine because of a heart attack occurring at the same time on the other side of the city but in the end two truck companies responded.
"I don't come unless it's a double alarm. But during the day I come anyway, and there was a lot of work to do right off the bat," he said.
It was about two hours after the fire began that the scene was in "overhaul mode," the chief said. "We had to transition our attack because we couldn't get in the building. So we use ladder/pipe operations. We cut holes in the roof and then the rafters had failed because of the fire load. ...
"The ladder truck put a lot of fire out and then we started entering the building on ladders to put the fire out in the attack."
It was not clear who made the initial 911 call but Connors thought Boyd indicated that she had.
This was a very well-developed, fast-moving fire that was aided by the 'balloon-frame' construction characteristics which allowed for fire travel among void spaces in the walls, Garner wrote in his report released late Thursday. "The shortcoming of this type of construction can be it typically doesn't have the 'fire stop' protection that common wood 'platform-frame' construction affords."
The building was later deemed a near total loss with partial collapse of the roof and heavy fire damage throughout. There was no estimate on the dollar loss.
"It was a lot of work. That's what we trained for. They did a good job," Sammons said of the department. "It's just every now and then. There is a delay. Obviously there was a delay before they made the call but that happens."
Updated with new information and the name of the owner at 9:49 p.m.
Tags: structure fire,
