Several families are homeless this morning after a four-alarm fire tore through two Dorchester homes last night, marking the third straight night that Hub jakes battled roaring house fires.
Eva Balls, 33, was in the basement of 39 Columbia Road playing pool when her 15-year-old daughter called her cell phone from their second-floor apartment.
"She said, 'Mom, the kitchen is on fire,' " recalled Balls, who said she raced upstairs to make sure her daughter was safe and then ran out.
Balls, whose head was wrapped in white bandages last night as she watched firefighters knock down the blaze, said she's thankful they made it out alive.
Balls' brother, Anthony Balls of Roxbury, owns the building and rents the first and second floors to family members. His niece, who lives on the first floor, jumped out a window to safety, he said.
The fire, which was caused by an electrical short at 7:17 p.m., spread next door to 43 Columbia Road, gutting that house and damaging two others.
Fourteen people were left homeless.
On Saturday, a fire on Aberdeen Street killed two Boston University students and injured a third. On Friday, 50 people were displaced after a North End building went up in flames.
Republished with permission of the Boston Herald.
