Official: Fire victim may have alerted residents
A 30-year-old man who perished in a Holyoke row house fire Saturday may have lost his life after first ensuring his family got out safely, authorities said yesterday.
“The report we originally got was that everyone in the apartment was alerted to the fire, possibly by the man who died,” Holyoke fire Capt. Kevin Cavagnac said.
Cavagnac said the cause of the three-alarm fire that broke out early Saturday morning at 113 Newton St. has been officially listed by local and state arson officials as “undetermined and not suspicious.”
“They tried to do an investigation for cause and origin, but the place was just destroyed. The roof had come down to the second floor and collapsed that to the first floor,” Cavagnac said.
Four townhouses were affected and 14 people displaced, he said.
The name of the deceased victim was being withheld pending a positive identification by autopsy.
Cavagnac said the man’s mother was among those driven out by the fierce flames.
The 127-year-old residence where heavy smoke was initially reported billowing from the secondfloor windows was assessed by the city at $32,000.
The damage was so great that Cavagnac said officials have been unable to determine if there were smoke detectors in the building.
Mutual aid was provided by fire departments in South Hadley, Chicopee and Westover Air Reserve Base.