If anyone has seen the fire trucks and stuff on Bridge Street near West Ninth, it's because there is a gas leak somewhere on West Ninth Street.
I talked to Deputy Fire Chief Cushing who said the leak isn't bad enough to prompt evacuations, but it looks like the National Grid crews are going to have to do some digging to locate the exact source of the leak.
Expect to see crews in that area pretty late tonight.
Police are searching for a dark-blue Buick LeSabre believed to be the getaway car used by two while males who held up Jerry's Food Store, 1172 Lawrence St., tonight a little before 9 p.m.
A machete was shown during the robbery, but I don't have many more details yet.
Suspects are described as two white males. One wore a red stocking cap.
Anyone with information is asked to call Lowell police at 978-937-3200 or Crimestoppers at 978-459-TIPS (8477). Information can also be sent to police via Text-a-Tip, by texting TIP411 (847411) with the subject "LPDTIP."
Tipsters can remain anonymous, but can receive up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Police arrested Jonathan Deleon, 27, of Lowell, almost immediately early this morning after they got a call for gunshots on Grand Street about 3:48 a.m.
Someone reported that a man had walked out of a party on Grand Street and fired several gunshots into the air once he got outside.
Officers found DeLeon walking up the street, and just a few feet away from him was a loaded .357 with several spent shell casings still in the gun, along with several loaded ones.
DeLeon was held this weekend on charges of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and disorderly conduct.
Police also arrested two people from Lewiston, Maine Sunday morning after getting a tip that they had firearms in the trunk of their car. They were pulled over on the Hunts Falls Rotary about 11 a.m., and officers found three rifles, a shotgun and a box of ammunition in the car.
Neither Norman Johnson, 39, nor Cynthia Parent, 46, had a license for the guns, so both were charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition.
Johnson also had a warrant for a restraining order violation.
They too were held.
That's five guns off the streets in the course of about 7 hours.
Tonight detectives arrested a second man in connection with the Jan. 28 shooting of a 20-year-old Lowell man inside a Lakeview Avenue apartment.
The victim was found at Tedeschi Food Shop at 494 Bridge St., in Centralville, where he walked after being shot in the thigh.
Steven Cafeteiro, 21, of 349 Pawtucket St., Lowell, was arrested at his home tonight about 8:30 p.m.
Detectives had a warrant charging him with armed assault with intent to murder and home invasion.
Cafeteiro and David Simard, 20, of Lowell, are accused of forcing their way into an apartment on Lakeview Avenue and then shooting the 20-year-old in the thigh during a struggle. Court documents say Simard and Cafeteiro though the victim had robbed them.
After being shot, the victim locked himself in a closet until his attackers left, and then walked to Tedeschi.
Simard was arrested on the same charges early this month. He was initially held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing, but I'm not sure what happened at that hearing.
Police got multiple 911 calls Wednesday night about 10 for shots fired at Cork and Dublin streets, and found 10 shell casings in a walkway between two houses on Dublin Street, but not a lot of damage.
A Chevy Malibu parked on Cork Street about 50 feet from the shell casings was the only thing anyone could find that was struck by bullets. Kind of amazing.
 |
Two men, one in a white hoodie, and one dressed in black, were seen running from the scene toward Fenwick Terrace.
Police also found a pile of live rounds in the parking lot of St. Patrick's Church at the other end of Cork Street. Not sure what the story was with that, whether someone with bullets fell down and lost them or what.
No one turned up at area hospitals and police didn't find any victims during a search of the area. Not much more available on this one.
Would have updated last night but the blog was down for some reason - technical difficulties beyond my understanding.
Also, if you note that the map link shows Marion and LaGrange streets, that's because those streets were renamed Cork and Dublin a few years ago, and Google apparently hasn't updated their maps.
Tewksbury Police have responded in force to the National Grid property on Old Boston Road, after an officer doing a property check there saw a man in a black hoodie running inside a razor-wire topped fence at the facility about 11:10 p.m.
The gate to the facility was still locked, so police were unable to go inside initially, but they've surrounded the property and are searching for the man with a canine.
There is no evidence he took anything, but police want to know what he's doing inside.
There have been incidents in the past where large amounts of copper wire were stolen from the facility, which includes a substation.
DRACUT -- A 25-year-old Dracut man was freed from his car by firefighters and then flown to a Boston hospital with serious injuries yesterday after he drove into a tree on Marsh Hill Road.
Police were called to the area of 414 Marsh Hill Road about 3:30 p.m., and found a Mercury Grand Marquis that left the road and struck a tree.
The driver, John Gargiulo, 25, of Surrey Lane, Dracut, had to be freed by firefighters using hydraulic tools.
He was then taken to Lowell General Hospital, and from there flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
His condition was not immediately available, but his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
No charges have been filed, but an investigation into what caused the crash continues with help from the state police accident reconstruction unit.
Marsh Hill Road was closed between Jones Avenue and Old Marsh Hill Road until about 5:30 p.m.
I've been way too busy to blog tonight since I'm covering this, a bad crash, and a story about the charter school in Lowell, so I'm just going to paste my story and stick a couple photos in it as I go.
All photos are by Tory Germann, which is why they're so great. I just cropped them a bit to make them fit here in the blog.
LOWELL -- Police surrounded a building in the Market Mills apartment complex downtown and called in a regional SWAT team yesterday morning after a man robbed a 73-year-old cab driver at gunpoint and then fled into the building.
 |
Police got a 911 call reporting the armed robbery at 9:27 a.m. The driver for Town Taxi told police he picked a man up at 256 Market St., drove him to the Camelot Court condominium complex on Pawtucket Boulevard, and then drove him back to 256 Market St.
Back downtown, the man, later identified as Shayne Sullivan, 20, of 256 Market St., Unit 118, paid the cab driver, but then put a gun to the driver's head, according to police.
"He put it right there," the shaken cab driver said as he pointed to his temple yesterday morning outside the building. "He was all ready to shoot me."
The cab driver said his name was Al, but did not give his last name.
This is the cab driver, who remained at the scene during the standoff.
 |
The driver said Sullivan got "only a few bucks" from him since it was early on a Sunday morning.
Police learned that Sullivan had fled into the building at 256 Market St., which is also home to the Brush Art Gallery and Studios and next door to the Visitor's Center for the Lowell National Historic Park.
Officers tracked Sullivan to a specific apartment in the building, but were told by a family member that Sullivan made threatening statements regarding police.
Sullivan was located in the bedroom of a unit in the building, but refused to open the door for police.
Police say Sullivan was already "well known" to them. Based on that history and the threatening statements he allegedly made, a SWAT team from the North East Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council was called in.
Officers with the SWAT team got into the bedroom and arrested Sullivan without further incident a little before 1 p.m.
 |
He was being held last night on charges of armed robbery and assault and battery on a person over 60.
Police said they also recovered a realistic-looking pellet gun.
Kathleen Marcin, president of the Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association, said she first noticed police activity when she looked out her window in the morning.
She noticed police were still there when she looked out again about an hour later, but was not alarmed until she walked to Market Street to meet someone and saw even more police, and a SWAT team truck driving down the street.
"It was unnerving to see the SWAT team," Marcin said. "You think about the safety of all the people who are in that building."
Sullivan has a history with police. In April 2007, he was arrested in Lowell and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon (handgun). In December of that year, he was among three men arrested in Waltham at a home where police found a loaded AK-47-style semiautomatic assault rifle, a Remington shotgun, two other rifles and ammunition, according to published reports.
In that incident, two men caught breaking into a home in Waltham told police they had earlier been robbed.
Sullivan was among three men who were charged with two counts of armed robbery and a single count of armed assault with intent to rob in connection with that case.
It was not clear last night whether that case was ever closed.
Staff Writer David Perry contributed to this report.
If you saw the commotion there about 6:30 p.m., it didn't turn out to be much.
It was initially thought it may have been an assault since a middle aged man was found down in the parking lot bleeding heavily from the face, but upon further review of video tape it looks like the guy was just drunk and fell.
He was taken to a city hospital.
Sad that there are people in the city in that condition, but not an assault.
Firefighters tell me a homeowner from 24 Monarch St., in Pawtucketville came home just in time tonight.
The homeowner arrived to his gray, 2-story house off West Meadow Road to find the house full of smoke, and a fire burning around his wood stove.
Crews had fire showing on arrival at 9:40 p.m., but had the fire knocked down by about 10:55 p.m., and under control by a little after 10.
No one was hurt. There were several holes burned in the wall, though, as seen in the photo below, and power was cut to the home, so the residents will not be able to immediately return.
 |
Not sure how many people live in there, though.
UPDATE: Nevermind on the video I guess. It's been a night of technical difficulties. After being unable to get the city's GIS system to work so I could find out who's home this was, I also discovered that youtube isn't letting me upload my video.
I know when I'm beaten. I'll have to try all of this again tomorrow.
Police are looking for a black 1994 Honda Accord with Massachusetts plate 24KG49.
It was reportedly taken in an armed carjacking from the parking lot at Tedeschi's at Gorham and Moore streets. A handgun was reportedly shown.
The incident was reported about 7:30 p.m., but apparently happened earlier. It sounds as if police are still trying to sort out all of the details, so don't take any of this as the gospel.
No reports of injuries.
If you spot this vehicle, though, call police at 978-937-3200.
UPDATE: Suspect is described as a black male, mid-20's, about 5'8 with a thin build. He wore a black jacket, and the victim thinks he saw the bottom of a black handgun the suspect had under his shirt.
I wanna get this up as soon as possible now that I'm back, so I'm just going to copy what I wrote for breaking news.
LOWELL -- If you heard an explosion in Pawtucketville Wednesday night about 10:15 p.m., have no fear -- it was all planned and supervised by the State Police bomb squad.
Troopers with the bomb squad secured a device that was found inside a home at 42 Billerica St., last night and then took it to Regatta Field to safely detonate it.
Police and firefighters were called to 42 Billerica St., about 9 p.m., after some family members who were cleaning out a house found a suspicious device.
The device, described as several bottle rockets wrapped around a container of liquid, prompted emergency crews to call in two troopers from the State Police Bomb Squad just to be safe.
Those troopers secured the device in a blast-resistant container, and then transported it to Regatta Field to keep it as far away from homes and residents as possible.
There, behind several large piles of snow, troopers with the bomb squad safely detonated the device after police shut down traffic on Pawtucket Boulevard between the Rourke Bridge and Dunbar Avenue.
A deputy fire chief and police patrol supervisor were on hand, as was a fire engine and a crew from Trinity Ambulance.
Within about five minutes traffic was reopened.
No one will face charges. Police said the family members who called them did the right thing by calling emergency crews instead of trying to move the device themselves.
I'll add here that this really didn't seem to be a big deal, but it was something both police and fire wanted to handle with an abundance of caution.
I've got to admit I've never seen one quite like this before.
A truck that slid out of control down a snow-covered Barasford Avenue this afternoon ended up hitting the corner of the garage of a home on East Merrimack Street.
There was the usual damage to the truck and the garage, but bizarrely, the impact also completely detached the entire garage from the home. It looked like the entire garage moved in one piece away from the house when it was struck.
 |
Here is a more straight-on view so you can see just how much the garage pulled away from the home.
 |
Maybe even more bizarre was how well both the driver and the homeowner handled the whole situation.
The driver, Paul Asikis, 31, of Dracut, said he was on his way home from work when he turned onto Barasford Avenue from Route 133 about 7 p.m., only going about 15 mph at the top of the hill.
Before long his F350 was sliding out of control, though, and gaining speed as it moved down hill.
Asikis kept his wits about him and managed to steer the truck into an embankment in an effort to stop, but he told me the truck just bounced right off.
As his truck approached East Merrimack Street, which meets Barasford in a T intersection, Asikis tried to hit a car in the driveway at 678 E. Merrimack St.
"I figured if I hit the car it would be better than the house," he told me.
He couldn't hit the car though. His truck slid past the car and into the left side of the garage.
Homeowner Mary Landry said "it sounded like the end of the world."
She too handled the situation extremely well. She said Asikis was very apologetic.
A building inspector checked everything out and determined there was no damage to the home's living quarters, but that the truck would have to remain in place overnight, since it appeared it was holding up the garage.
Here's a more close-up look at the damage.
 |
Building inspectors will return Tuesday morning to inspect further and come up with a plan to get the truck out of there.
Police said alcohol was not involved, and that Asikis will not face charges.
I usually do this the other way around, but for those of you who don't follow me on Twitter:
If you're going to the Gloves tonight DO NOT park on East Merrimack. Snow parking ban is in effect and being enforced. You WILL get towed.
Police are out there now. Reports from other folks on Twitter that they're also out on Market Street enforcing the ban.
Free parking in the Ayotte Garage until the ban is over.
Police are off at the scene of a reported robbery at Top Donut on Bridge Street in Centralville.
They got the call about 7:40 p.m., and got there within seconds since an officer was already at the scene of Friday's fire about 3 blocks down the street.
According to radio broadcasts no weapon was shown, but the suspect may have had one since he kept his hands in his pockets. He is described as a white or Hispanic male in his late 40s, with gray hair and gold earrings. He's about 5'9 with a medium build.
He wore a camouflage jacket, light-colored jeans.
UPDATE: Police got information that this suspect was on his way to Tedeschi's at 220 Appleton St., and took a man into custody there.
After a showup, the guy in the video below was taken into custody for unarmed robbery.
 |
Police say he is David Aguilar, 48, of 49 Mt. Pleasant St., in Billerica. He is charged with unarmed robbery.
Here's some video of being searched and put in the wagon.
Things could have gotten hairy again on Bridge Street if an alert detail officer at the scene of the huge early morning fire there on early Friday morning hadn't spotted smoke this afternoon.
Firefighters were called to the 128-year-old Varnum Building at 401 Bridge St., about 4:45 p.m.
It was tough to see any smoke at first, but once crews extended a ladder past the live power lines in front of the building and got some water on the upper corner, steam and smoke became more apparent.
 |
Two firefighters then used a ladder to enter the second-floor of the building, and soon found fire in floor supports that were holding up the fourth floor.
They had to tear apart quite a bit of stuff to make sure everything was really out this time, and Deputy Chief Patrick McCabe warned crews to be careful since the Friday morning blaze had caused the building's roof to collapse, meaning the fourth floor was supporting both its own weight and the weight of what remains of the roof.
McCabe said it is "very unusual" for a hot spot to remain for so long, but that there was no way anyone could have gotten into the building and no other possible cause since there is no electricity.
I asked McCabe how quickly this could have gone up if it hadn't been noticed sooner, and he said that with most of the windows smashed and plenty of oxygen inside the burned out building, this could have gotten very bad if the fire had really gotten started again.
Here's a pretty long video of the activity at the scene. Bridge was closed between Third Street and Fourth Street for the duration of all of this. Crews cleared the scene about 6:45 p.m.
The employees at Hannaford Supermarket in Dracut get the Lowell Sun crime blog award today.
Police were called there at 4:59 p.m., for a report that a pit bull was loose in the store.
It wasn't attacking anyone or anything, but it had people nervous.
Not a problem for Hannaford employees, though.
According to radio broadcasts the dog quickly left the store of it's own volition after someone grabbed a bone from the meat department and tossed it out the front door.
Animal control is en route as I type this.
A 67-year-old woman who lives on Beacon Street in Christian Hill may have saved her own life tonight by being alert.
She called firefighters about a problem with her furnace about 7:40 p.m., because she smelled something funny.
When firefighters arrived she was coughing profusely, and CO levels in her home were about 70 parts per million. The woman was put on a rebreather and taken to a city hospital, though she was expected to be okay.
Firefighters said the home's chimney was blocked. They vented it with fans after shutting down the furnace.
The woman, who's age I got from scanner broadcasts, lives alone. Had she fallen asleep while CO levels were rising who knows how this could have ended.
Good chance to remind everyone that firefighters all over have long recommended homeowners get annual maintenance on their furnace and chimney, and that everyone on earth have a CO detector installed in their home.
If you're curious what regular CO levels are supposed to be, the one in my living room has never risen above 0 parts per million, and I'm a heavy smoker, poor housekeeper, and generally stinky guy.
This woman smelled the smells of the furnace, not CO. Carbon Monoxide is an odorless gas. It can easily build up in your house, and you won't know until your passed out, which means you won't know it, which means...
Get a CO detector.
Ayer Police are asking the public to help them identify the man pictured below in connection with a bank robbery at the North Middlesex Savings Bank, 7 Main St., Ayer, on Tuesday afternoon.
 |
Police say this man never showed a weapon, but passed a note to a teller which claimed he had a gun. He escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Anyone with information is asked to call Ayer Police at 978-772-8200, and ask for Detective Kularski or Officer Morrison.
I just posted about domestic violence a few days ago, so this report struck me as especially egregious tonight.
Police got a call about 5 p.m., from a 19-year-old woman in downtown Lowell. She told officers she had a fight with her boyfriend earlier in the afternoon.
During the fight, police say Moises Rodriguez, 21, of Lowell, repeatedly punched the 19-year-old in the face.
Police say he then knocked her down, and kicked her directly in the stomach. She is two months pregnant.
Police say Rodriguez then removed the 19-year-old's shoe and hit her in the face with it. As officers took a police report, an imprint of the shoe's tread was still visible on the side of the woman's face. So was swelling around her eye.
Police say that after the beating stopped, Rodriguez got a knife and held a knife to the 19-year-old's throat while threatening to kill her.
Police say Rodriguez then took the 19-year-old's purse, and some of her clothing, and left.
Officers found him about 6:30 p.m., at 452 Merrimack St.
He was being held without bail Monday night, pending arraignment in Lowell District Court on charges of assault and battery on a pregnant person, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shoe), assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot), assault with a dangerous weapon (knife), larceny from a person, and threatening to commit a crime (murder).
The 19-year-old was taken to a hospital. It sounds like the fetus will survive, but police couldn't release much more about her condition.
An off-duty Chelmsford Officer, Jason Poor, was driving around town this morning when he noticed the green, Chevy S10 that is pictured below driving up and down Tyngsboro Road and Middlesex Street.
Poor recognized the vehicle as one suspected of being involved in several recent house breaks, so he kept an eye on it, and eventually it pulled into Kennedy Drive, where two men got out and broke into a condo at 7 Kennedy Drive, according to Chelmsford Police.
Poor called on-duty officers too the scene, and as soon as the guys inside saw them they jumped out a second-story window and ran, according to Deputy Chief Scott Ubele.
 |
Photo by Jon Hill
Both men were arrested a short distance away.
They were identified as Jose Mercado, 36, of Lowell, and William Ashton, 29, of Lowell.
Both were charged with breaking and entering day, larceny of property over $250, and possession of burglary tools. Ashton faces a second count of breaking and entering because police say he broke into a second building while trying to elude police.
If you recognize his name, it's because he was a party to the lawsuit the Kennedy family, Brian and Michelle Kennedy, filed against Billerica Police a few years ago. He also joined the Kennedy family in asking a federal judge to issue an injunction preventing Billerica Police from arresting them in any other town.
The judge refused. Billerica Police had no involvement in this incident.
Kennedy is also facing charges in Lowell Superior Court because he allegedly broke into the home of a Billerica Firefighter on Handel Road in June of 2008 along with Patricia Barbarossa and stole 11 firearms, cash, jewelry, and even a deer's head.
Barbarossa plead guilty last year.
Ashton and Mercado will be arraigned Tuesday in Lowell District Court. They were being held in Chelmsford last night.
Vice detectives were in the Highlands tonight when out of nowhere they heard gunshots in the area of South Canton Street about 7:50 p.m.
Moments later, detectives saw a car quickly fleeing the area and followed it into a driveway at 166 Stevens St., where officers got the three occupants out of the car at gunpoint.
Detectives found a .22 semi-auto and a .25 semi-auto in the car, so all three men were arrested. I'd imagine that's why this guy looks so glum.
 |
And why this guy doesn't look like he's happy either.
 |
After securing the guns and the guys in the car, detectives and officers who arrived as backup found six small-caliber shell casings like the one pictured below in the middle of South Canton Street, between Westford Street and Princeton Boulevard.
 |
They also found three cars struck by bullets, including this one...
 |
...and this one...
 |
...and Saint George's Greek Orthodox Church, 44 Princeton Blvd., was struck, though the building suffered little more than a hole in a piece of spouting and a small chip in the outer wall, as pictured below.
 |
Seyrattanak Keung, 17, of 505 Wilder St., unit 3; Noun Meas, 23, of 166 Stevens St., unit 9; and Michael Rin, 17, of 16 Spring Ave., are all facing one count of carrying a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, two counts of unlawfully carrying a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm while committing a felony, unlawful possession of a firearm, and three counts of destruction of property.
Among the most serious felonies in that list is unlawful carrying, which is a 1-year mandatory minimum.
A bail commissioner had not yet set bail last night. They'll be arraigned Thursday in Lowell District.
Keung was arrested less than two weeks ago for a violation of the city's dangerous weapons ordinance.
Meas was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in November of 2009, and on Christmas night in 2005 he was charged with possession of ammunition after police found bullets inside his apartment while investigating a shots fired incident on Powell Street.
It should be noted that I just confirmed that no one ever called police to report those six gunshots in one of the city's most densely populated neighborhoods. If the folks in Vice hadn't heard the shots...
I've been too busy tonight to really blog much, so once again I'll just cut and paste a story in here.
By all accounts, this sounds like a normal family. No history of domestics, no history of violence. Former Chelmsford Police Chief Raymond McCusker just went to Foxboro with his friend Brian Marchand two weeks ago, and said Marchand was his usual, jovial self.
No matter how many murders I've covered, this one still boggles my mind. How do you kill your own child?
For starters, here's a sidebar we did about Olivia tonight.
And here is a link to a Facebook group in Olivia's memory, already with over 3,000 members.
Here's a banner put up at Westford Academy today.
 |
All of the students were too upset to talk today. We initially thought some might want to talk, but then Mr. Antonetti asked us to keep our distance and let them grieve, which was a request we respected.
Here is what we could piece together anyway on student reaction. Based on the comments on the facebook page, it looks like the students are coming together.
It looks like financial worries may have motivated this, though it also appears that not much of anyone will ever really know for sure.
If you saw all the cruisers and commotion up there about 6:30 p.m., don't worry it was just for a stolen car. A few arrests were made, I think three, but I have no information yet.
The large response was just because police had a fix on the car, which was recovered.
Not much is known on this. Capt. Roy gave a statement to some reporters who called the station while I was on the way to the scene tonight, but I was never able to reach him. The chief and the other two captains didn't reply to emails.
Jessica Venezia from the DA's office could only confirm that investigators were on scene, and said the DA's office would not be putting out a statement tonight.
Here's what I put in the paper. It's massively short on details, so stay tuned for more tomorrow. Trying to upload some video but I'm currently having technical problems.
By Robert Mills
rmills@lowellsun.com
WESTFORD -- It had been 22 years since the last homicide in Westford, but three people have now been killed in a pair of incidents less than a month apart.
Police last night were still at the scene of a home at 7 Makepeace Road, where they found two individuals dead and a third person critically wounded about 8:30 p.m.
The town was shocked on Jan. 9, when prosecutors say Frederick Leduc, 45, shot and killed his wife, Karen, with a .357 magnum and then turned the gun on himself inside a home at 48 Forge Village Road.
Leduc survived the gunshot wound and is now being held without bail as he faces murder charges.
Details were scant, but Westford police last night said a shooting left two people dead and a third person injured. The injured individual was taken to UMass Medical Center in Worcester by a medical helicopter.
The incident was domestic in nature, police told a Boston television station, though no one was available to confirm that report last night.
A spokesperson for District Attorney Gerard Leone said she could not immediately comment except to confirm that investigators from Leone's office were at the scene.
Neighbors on Makepeace Road had nothing to say last night. One man simply said "all set" when a reporter came to his door.
Makepeace Road is a short stretch of road in the northern tip of Westford near Route 3 that connects Tyngsboro and Chelmsford. It is called Dunstable Road in those towns.
Westford's online assessors' database shows the 100-year-old Colonial home where the incident occurred has been owned since 1989 by Brian and Jody Marchand.
Assessors' records show the home at 7 Makepeace Road has a mailing address of 373 Dunstable Road, Tyngsboro, even though it is located in Westford.
It was not immediately clear last night whether Marchand lives in the home or just owns it.
A white van was parked in the driveway near the well-kept white home last night as uniformed police and plainclothes investigators attached to Leone's office flooded the property, eventually being joined by a hulking mobile command center from the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.
Several people put white booties on their feet before entering the home, and investigators could be seen taking photographs on both the first and second floors as news crews set up cameras along the street.
Police tape guarded by a uniformed officer kept all but investigators off of the property.
The killings this year are the first since July 2, 1987, when a woman was killed at a home on River Street.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Chelmsford Fire Chief Jack Parow mentioned to me tonight that sometimes sprinklers get a bad rap because they can cause a mess when they freeze or burst when they're not needed.
Not the case in Chelmsford tonight.
Firefighters got called to the Radisson Hotel at 10 Independence Drive about 7:45 p.m.
The call was a box alarm and a reported dryer fire, but the first crews on scene were greeted with an alarming sight - smoke pouring from the roof of the five-story building, and more smoke coming out the front door.
It turns out the incident really was a dryer fire, though.
 |
A large-capacity, gas-fed industrial dryer had caught fire on the first floor. And this is where we get back to sprinklers, because even though the dryer runs on natural gas, a spinkler head directly above it was triggered and it kept the fire in check until firefighters arrived.
Take that sprinkler head away, and one has to wonder what would have happened.
"This is when they really do their job," Parow said of sprinklers. "It kept the fire in check until we could get here."
Firefighters had the flames knocked down by 7:51 p.m., and by 7:58 p.m., radio broadcasts indicated the fire was out and the sprinkler head had been shutoff.
It was not immediately clear how many guests were evacuated, but all were able to return to their rooms last night. Firefighters only knew that the hotel was not at capacity.
Employees were planning to call each room and check on anyone who didn't answer the telephone in person last night, just to make sure all guests were okay.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Chelmsford's ladder truck was out of service last night for maintenance, so a Lowell ladder truck went to the scene, though in the end it wasn't needed.
There was water damage around the laundry room, where all the fire damage was contained as you can see in the picture I posted.
