Firefighters Douse Apartment Blaze in Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield and area firefighters were able to contain a blaze in a multi-family apartment in a thickly settled neighborhood on Friday.
The fire was called in at about 4:50 and was out by about 7 p.m. The cause has not yet been determined.
The structure is at the corner of Lincoln Street and Cherry Street Extension. Smoke could be seen in the downtown area and parts of Cherry and Lincoln were blocked off. According to the Fire Department report, firefighters "found heavy fire engulfing a second floor porch" and a stairway "engulfed in flames" as they attempted to attack the blaze in the interior. Encountering heavy fire conditions on the second floor and exposure on the exterior, crews were called out of the building.
Water was pouring out the front door of the building and the entire roof section was blackened and burned by about 6 p.m. The second floor of the structure appears gutted. The siding on the house next door on Lincoln Street melted from the heat.
More than a dozen families are said to be displaced.
"A bunch of families are displaced, it's looking like 13-plus individuals from various different apartments," said Police Lt. Jeffrey Bradford. "So we're trying to get the Red Cross now."
He said there has been no reports of injuries and he hadn't seen the emergency medical technicians treating anyone. He could not speak to the origin of the fire.
One man said he believed that had a charcoal grill out on the second floor deck and either forgot it or left it. Another rumor was a gas stove.
"It's OK. This is all material stuff," he said. "It got burned. I lost everything."
One of the second-floor residents said he and wife were able to get out safely with their four cats but one woman who lived there wasn't able to get her cat.
Fire Chief Thomas Sammons said there was fire on the porch when firefighters arrived. They pulled hand lines but once inside found "there was a lot of fire inside that hadn't broken out yet."
When the building was hit with water, the flames started to break out through the back attic space. A double alarm was called to bring in more resources and then a third alarm and mutual aid was called.
"During that time, when we were getting everybody here, it extended to the second building briefly," he said, referring to another apartment building adjacent to it on Cherry Street. "The fire's out now, there's no injuries so we're in pretty good shape."
He estimated it affected about 16 apartments between the two buildings.
Dalton, Hinsdale and Lenox arrived with mutual aid, along with a ladder truck from the Boston Fire Department that Dalton had been borrowing. "It's kind of a first for this area," said Sammons.
When asked about the cause being a grill or stove, Sammons said he had not heard that and could not yet speak to the cause.
The structure is listed as 110 Lincoln St. and 18-24 Cherry St. It is owned by TJLR Onota LLC of New Jersey. City records say it was built circa 1880 and contains 12 units in 8,300 square feet.
The Red Cross also arrived at the scene to aid the displaced residents in finding shelter for the night.
The main building is completely gutted with significant smoke, water and heat damage one side and moderate damage to the other.
Tags: structure fire,
