PLUCKED FROM LYNN INFERNO
Dozen residents saved by firefighters
Three Lynn firefighters were injured while plucking at least a dozen residents from a burning apartment building early yesterday morning, pulling them from windows and fire escapes as a roaring, three-alarm fire raged inside, a city fire official said.
None of the 40 residents was injured in the blaze, which ripped through the top floors and attic of the 12-unit Kingsley Terrace building about 5:30 a.m., as many people slept, according to District Chief Stephen Archer.
Investigators were still trying to determine how and where the fire started before it filled the building’s stairwells with thick smoke, which blocked residents from escaping, Archer said. Firefighters used ladders to reach 12 to 15 residents in the upper-floor windows, in addition to pulling a handicapped man from a window on the first floor, he said.
“Our guys did a fantastic job getting to them and getting them out of the building,” Archer told the Herald. “The conditions had deteriorated so quickly with the smoke and heat, they needed to come out through the windows.”
Three firefighters suffered what Archer called minor injuries, including two who went to the hospital with shoulder and ankle injuries.
One resident — the man rescued from the first floor — was also taken to the hospital as precaution, he said.
Officials didn’t have a cost estimate on the damage, but Archer called it “extensive.” About two dozen people were working with the Red Cross to find temporary housing, though Archer said the 40 residents displaced by the blaze “won’t be back in the building anytime soon.”
And though the fire also drove several people from an attached apartment building, Archer said he expected they would be able to return to their homes.