One man killed, another rescued in Cambridge three-alarm fire
One man died and another was rescued by a firefighter on a ladder after a three-alarm fire tore through a 30-unit apartment building in Cambridge on Tuesday, officials said.
The fire at 15 Chester St. was reported at 4:38 a.m. and drew some 65 firefighters to the scene, officials said.
Acting Fire Chief Thomas F. Cahill said “the sole occupant of the unit where the fire originated” was found dead inside.
“The bulk of the fire was contained to this one residential unit” on the second floor “and the units below it,” Cahill said.
The man’s name was not released. The state’s medical examiner’s office will formally identify the victim and determine the cause and manner of his death, officials said.
A firefighter was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. No other injuries were reported, Cahill said.
Cahill said multiple residents reported hearing an explosion “seconds before heavy fire erupted” from the building’s windows. “We’re working to find out what could have caused that explosion,” he said.
Most residents escaped the building on their own after hearing smoke alarms, but a man living on the top floor was trapped by the flames and had to be rescued, Cahill said.
“He alerted us by going to the window, and that’s when we were able to relocate the aerial [ladder] and take him down that way,” he said. “There was no egress at this point because of the fire in that front hallway ... at the bottom of the stairs.”
Getting the ladder to the man wasn’t easy, Cahill said.
“There was a lot of high-tension wires, there were trees, it was very, very icy because of the cold and all the water that was out there,” he said.
About 15 residents were displaced and are being assisted by the Red Cross of Massachusetts and the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Team, officials said. Most of the building is expected to be habitable after it is cleaned up, officials said.
Firefighters arrived at the apartment building shortly after 4:40 a.m. to find heavy flames. They were able to control the fire by about 5:15 a.m., according to the state Department of Fire Services.
The heavy blaze required a “rapid, coordinated” attack, officials said. Firefighters contained the flames to the secondfloor apartment and found the resident when they went inside, officials said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.