Fire in Weymouth turns fatal
Claims life of local man who used wheelchair
An early morning fire Saturday at a Weymouth apartment building claimed the life of a wheelchair user, despite neighbors’ and emergency responders’ efforts to save him, authorities said.
Bruce Miller, 40, died in the fire that broke out in his first-floor apartment at 150 Mediterranean Drive, said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.
Weymouth firefighters and police went to Avana Weymouth Apartment Homes in response to a 911 call at 1:52 a.m.
“When I went out on the balcony, I could see the flames shooting up,” said Ruth Cronk, 59, who lives on the second floor of the six-story building. “When I got outside, I was screaming, ‘There’s a handicapped person on the first floor!’ The cop next to me never hesitated. He ran into the building to try to save him, but the apartment was fully engulfed.”
Multiple officers and firefighters tried to rescue the man and evacuate the building, Traub said.
So did Tim Doyle, 28, who lives with his fiancee two floors above Miller’s apartment.
“We were right about to go to bed when we heard a beeping noise, and we saw smoke from our window,” he said. “We ran downstairs, and we saw an amazing amount of smoke. I couldn’t see anything except people and animals running out. I ran back upstairs and grabbed Tyson, my bull terrier-boxer mix, and ran outside to my fiancee. I also have a cat, Bruce, I couldn’t find. So as I ran back upstairs to get him, I knocked on people’s doors, screaming, ‘Fire! Get out! Get out now!.'”
Doyle said he saw first responders carry Miller out on a stretcher.
“It was horrible,” he said. “Maybe if I had heard the alarm go off a little sooner … I just wish somebody could have saved him.”
As of yesterday, Traub said, there was no sign of foul play in the fire. Investigators are focusing on an accidental cause, said Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the Department of Fire Services.
The blaze was largely contained to Miller’s apartment on the ground floor of the six-story building.
Susan MacKay, a nurse who lives two doors down from Miller’s apartment, said she was just returning from work when she could see the “shadow” of his body on his mattress on the lawn.
“I’m very sad that he died,” said MacKay, 63. “Every loss is a tragedy, but to die in that way is very tragic.”
Miller moved in about a year ago and had personal care attendants and a “beautiful” Doberman named Tasha.
“He was very, very sweet,” she said of Miller. “He’d been sheltering in place since March. Before that, he used to go out in his electric wheelchair with Tasha.”
“What a life he had, and then to die like that,” Cronk said. “He deserved better.”
The fire is being investigated by the Weymouth fire and police departments, as well as State Police assigned to both the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.