Fire reported in a home at 147 Groton Road in Chelmsford a little before midnight, but I just caught a radio report that it has been knocked down.
Just a one-alarm fire with Lowell heading in as mutual aide. No reports of injuries. Police were told everyone was out of the building.
Firefighters were first called to Albion Street tonight about 8:55 p.m., for just a report of smoke in the area, but the fire engine sent to investigate soon found flames shooting up the back of 50-52 Albion St., a Lowell Housing Authority property.
Deputy Fire Chief Patrick McCabe tells me it appears the fire started in a mattress behind the building, burned up an outer wall and then got into the second-floor ceiling and third floor.
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City fire investigators and the State Fire Marshall's Office were on their way to the scene tonight to investigate. I'm pretty sure any fire that starts outside is automatically suspicious.
On a side note, two young men were arrested during the fire after they repeatedly refused to leave the scene so they would not be in the way of firefighters.
Spike Alemesis told me he was doing dishes when he heard sirens, opened his back door and saw flames shooting up the back of the building. He got his family out alright, but one of the family's cats ran back inside the building and was missing last night. Another cat was safe.
In all, I talked to members of three families, and there were at least 14 people living in the building, including a 9-month-old and a 5-year-old girl.
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The Merrimack Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross was on the way to the scene last night.
The fire was knocked down at 9:31 p.m.
Here's a little video, but there wasn't any flame showing even though the fire was pretty intense inside the building. Most of what I got is too dark to post.
One of our wonderful photographers, Tory Germann, took both of the photos above. She is my hero for coming to the scene because my camera battery died right after I got there and I left the backup in the office.
UPDATE: I just caught a late report that a firefighter was injured. Everyone was okay when I talked to the deputy, so it sounds like someone got hurt during overhaul. Hopefully it's minor, but I'll update as soon as I can get back in touch with Deputy McCabe.
A 2-alarm fire completely leveled a 2-story, 2-car garage near a home at 38 Silvan Road in Billerica this afternoon.
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I haven't had a chance to talk to a captain or a deputy about this one yet, but the fire leveled the entire garage and melted all the siding off on side of the house nearby, as you can see in a photos I snapped at the scene.
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No word on a cause or anything yet since I haven't caught up with firefighters yet.
"When we came out it was just a mass of flame," neighbor Keith Stone told me, noting that even trees around the garage caught on fire. "It went up real quick."
Stone and another neighbor, Kevin Sullivan, both told me a motor home that had been parked next to the garage also burned, as did a car that was inside it.
There were about three explosions from something inside the garage blowing up, though Sullivan wasn't sure whether it was propane tanks or what.
No reports of injuries.
Pretty intense fire though. This photo shows how far the house is from the garage, and all the siding still melted. If you can't tell where the garage is, since it was completely flattened, just trust me it is on the left side of the photo.
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Will add more detail tonight once I talk to fire officials.
Firefighters are just starting to clear a fire on a third floor deck at 1 Technology Drive in Chelmsford.
They got called in at 5:45 p.m., and found smoke showing in a breezeway area. According to radio broadcasts there was fire on a third floor deck and in the space between the second and third floor.
At least part of it was put out by sprinklers.
Firefighters had the blaze out by 5:55 p.m. No reports of injuries or displacement.
Information from the fire department indicates $5,000 to $6,000 damage to the condo where the fire was, since the flames burned through the deck and the wall.
A firefighter from Engine 2 connected to a standpipe on the second floor and put out the fire after the sprinkler system activated.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
