Fireworks being used in the neighborhood caused a two-alarm fire at a home in Worcester Sunday night, according to fire officials.
Worcester Fire Department Deputy Chief Martin Dyer said fireworks struck a three-decker at 14 Preston Street around 10:42 p.m. Sunday.
The third floor of the building caught fire. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to extinguish the two-alarm fire.
Eleven people were displaced because of the fire. No one was hurt.
“When you light off these dangerous fireworks, they can have a dangerous toll, and we saw that Sunday night,” Dyer told MassLive.
The city has seen an increase in complaints about fireworks use lately, Dyer said. He noted there were dumpster fires caused by fireworks on Winthrop Street on Saturday.
Worcester officials are now establishing a working group to determine what resources are needed to address the issue of fireworks in the city, a spokesman for City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said.
On June 10, city officials put out a message stating there has been an “alarming increase in residential complaints regarding the use of fireworks” in Worcester. The city reminded people that possession, use and transportation of consumer fireworks is illegal in Massachusetts.
“The City of Worcester is especially susceptible as a community with dense neighborhoods and many aging housing units,” Worcester Fire Chief Michael Lavoie said recently. “Despite the Fire Prevention Division’s efforts to educate the public about the dangers of consumer fireworks, the Worcester Fire Department inevitably responds to avoidable fires caused from the use of illegal fireworks every year.”
Earlier this month, police in Boston seized a large number of fireworks in the South Boston area. People in the neighborhood complained about fireworks being used.
Officers spotted a group of people gathered in the Saint Peter’s Church parking lot and seized boxes of fireworks.
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