Gloucester firefighters Hit with Back to Back to Back Blazes

Dec. 01--Last January, Gloucester firefighters grappled with three significant house fires within 24 hours, the last of which claimed a woman's life on Windsor Lane.

This past weekend, Gloucester Fire Department had forces deployed at three sites at the same time briefly, and all just 36 hours after a Thanksgiving morning fire had driven six people from their 3 Prospect St. home.

Friday night, Gloucester firefighters first responded to a blaze that had started and crept inside the walls of a freestanding home at 38R Railroad Ave., behind Audrey's Flower Shop.

While firefighters were still fighting that blaze, another call came in for a fire at 10 Foster St., less than a half-mile away.Responders there found heavy smoke showing at that scene, as well. And both local fire calls came during a night when Gloucester crews had also responded and were wrapping up work at a Rockport fire that had sent flames soaring into the night from a heavily damaged home at 1 Hunters Court in that community.

"That's just the way it seems to go," Gloucester Deputy Chief Tom Aiello said Sunday of the fires' timing, adding that beleaguered crews especially felt the heat when "they were rolling and there was smoke showing" at the Foster Street fire around 9:30. The Rockport aid call had come in around 5:45, and the Railroad Avenue fire call came at 8:30, and crews there were very much still battling a nasty blaze that Aiello said was "hard to reach."

In both Gloucester cases, occupants of the houses were at home at the time of the fires, and all escaped without injury.

At Railroad Avenue, Aiello said, the fire apparently began when some dried-out wood behind the fireplace -- which was in use -- apparently ignited and burned within the walls of the wood-frame house. Firefighters contained the harm to "minimal damage" inside the house, Aiello said, but the exterior sustained heavier damage, as firefighters had to cut away siding to get to the source of the blaze.

"It was a hard place to get into," he said, not just because of the insidious nature of the fire, but also because of the house's location, with a narrow access way between two streetside buildings.

"Also, the fireplace itself kept steaming on us," Aiello said, and crews stayed to monitor that, as well.

At Foster Street -- a one-way street that runs downhill from Summer Street to Washington in one of the city's most tightly packed neighborhoods -- the blaze proved to be a stove fire, and firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the kitchen with minimal damage.

According to a report from Deputy Miles Schlichte, who served as incident commander at that scene, the occupants were cleaning the stove when some grease ignited, sending smoke billowing through and outside of the house.

Off-duty firefighters responded to help the department deal with its rash of calls, assisting with station coverage. When they had to respond to the local fires, Rockport crews, after dealing with their own Hunters Court fire, then came into Gloucester to provide station coverage as well.

"We help them, then they come in to help us," Aiello said, "That's how it works -- we all work together."

Aiello noted that while the rash of fires last week all came at the start of the heavy heating season, there were few connections and no apparent signs of negligence. The family at the Railroad Avenue house, for example, had the chimney recently cleaned and had undergone a fireplace and chimney inspection.

He added, however, that the news of the fires should serve as a reminder to all residents to tend to those safety needs.

"Chances are that a fireplace in a house that may be 100 years old wasn't built to anywhere near the safety levels we have today," he said. "Everyone -- especially with wood stoves, fireplaces and so forth -- should have their chimney cleaned and inspected once a year. It's just good sense."

Times Editor Ray Lamont can be reached at 978-675-2705, or at [email protected].