Firefighters had a difficult time battling a blaze that tore through a home in East Boston Tuesday evening amid hot and humid conditions across the region, and the high temperatures played a major role, sending five firefighters to the hospital for heat exhaustion.
The Boston Fire Department said on Twitter that there was smoke coming from the triple decker on Princeton Street when they arrived. The large fire burned through all three floors and caused the rear porches of the home where it started to collapse. Flames also spread to two other neighboring homes on each side, though the extent of that damage was not immediately clear.
“I just saw like a lot of smoke and also some fire coming from the windows,” noted Jesus Garcia who lives nearby.
Heat was a major concern Tuesday, with temperatures still in the high 80s as of the evening, and it hindered firefighter’s ability to put out the flames, according to Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke.
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About 150 firefighters responded to the scene of the fire, Burke said; they took turns going into the burning building.
Julian Zapata lives two doors down and said he went to his back porch and saw his neighbors’ home up in flames.
“I got scared. My heart started racing,” said Zapata, who rushed to gather a few of his belongings before evacuating. “I just ran upstairs to make sure everyone got out.”
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“You could just feel the intense heat coming. As soon as I opened the door, I had to close it because it was so intense and it was overwhelmingly hot,” he added.
Christopher Alvarado and his family lived on the second floor of the burning home. He said he noticed the electricity go out about 20 minutes before he noticed the fire.
“[The flames] were rising up through the window,” he said. “I was really scared, and I was nervous at the same time. But the thing that I could think of the most is making sure my family members were in a safe place.”
Everyone made it out unharmed. But for firefighters it wasn’t an easy feat.
“It was a tough fire to fight,” said Burke. “There was heavy fire in the rear when they arrived, and they had a hard time getting access to it – to the rear – because the staircase burned through.”
The heat took a toll on firefighters: nine of them suffered heat exhaustion, some were taken in stretchers to the hospital, while others threw wet towels on their heads and took water breaks.
"The heat has been a problem today,” noted Burke. “We’ve had to circulate firefighters in and out because the heat is so bad.”
Burke said he had to increase staffing Tuesday and the next few days in order to have enough firefighters to cycle through these next few hot days as the region experiences a heat wave.
The fire displaced 28 people, including eight children -- four who are under the age of two. They were being assisted by community organizations including the Red Cross of Massachusetts as they figure out where to go and how to get their lives back.
The City of Boston will be taking donations for the displaced families at East Boston High School starting Wednesday at 7 a.m.
Part of the road was closed while crews worked Tuesday. A cause for Tuesday's fire has not been determined. An investigation is ongoing.
