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January 28, 2000
Our little street has a very bad evening
Extra entry for today -- the house across the street from ours burned to the ground this evening. The firemen are still there -- our shades are drawn, but the floodlights and flashers are still lighting up our apartment. I can't sleep, I'm still shaking.
Barry got called into work to fix a problem for a client. He got in a cab at around nine o'clock. I saw him off, and then decided a glass of wine would be nice -- I'd do my taxes, have some wine, read my book, and generally just relax. So I got all wrapped up and headed out to the liquor store a block away. As I reached our corner, I saw a woman come out of the big three-story apartment house across the street. I noticed she was just in sweatpants and a t-shirt, no shoes. I thought it was odd -- it's near zero tonight, with a wind chill. But she looked at me, then turned away and knocked on her neighbor's front door. I went on my way, figuring she was just popping in to visit her neighbor. I got my wine, and walked home -- no more than five minutes had passed. As I neared my street, a fire truck passed me, and turned, and stopped right across from my house. I thought it was a false alarm; I hadn't seen any fire, or smelled smoke, and there are false alarms a lot in our area. But as I turned the corner, I saw a haze around the street lights. I noticed a faint smell, like someone had been burning leaves. Then I heard screaming. The woman I had seen was on her porch, surrounded by firemen, and she was screaming that her children were inside, and she hadn't been able to get to them. I saw my neighbor running up the street toward me, asking what was wrong. We looked at the back of the house, and saw smoke bleeding through the wall. The next thing I saw was flames shooting out of the windows. In less than ten minutes, the entire back half of the house was engulfed. Firemen were pulling people away from the house, people were screaming and crying, fire engines were pulling in... I ran indoors and grabbed blankets, sweatshirts, anything warm to give the people who had run outdoors hardly dressed, but by the time I got back outside they had been taken indoors by neighbors. The family next door to us carried an elderly woman in her wheelchair up their steps and inside. By that point the house next to the one burning had started to smolder, and the woman who lived there was standing in the street crying. I think the firemen saved it. There may just be some roof damage, and probably quite a lot of water damage.
It was very windy, and a few gusts carried embers across the street toward us. Barry and I live on the first floor -- it's a three story house, and each floor is an apartment. The woman who lives on the first floor came downstairs and we huddled together on the porch, watching. I called Barry at work and told him what was happening, and he came home as quickly as he could. I can't believe how fast the house burned. Within half an hour it was a five-alarm fire, with firemen from Everett, Chelsea, Malden, Somerville and MassPort all there.
Everyone got out of the house safely. Barry asked the paramedics, and they told him everyone was fine. There are rumors that a space heater started the fire in the kids bedroom. I'm so glad they got everyone out. The people lost everything, but they're all safe.
The fire would die down, and it would seem to be nearly over, and then in just an instant the flames would be roaring again, coming out all the windows in huge jets. At one point, the flames leaped up and all of the fire trucks all up and down the streeet simultaneously blew their horns, over and over. It was deafening, and the flames were blinding. My neighbor ran inside and called her father, who is a retired fireman. he told her the horns were the signal that the building was too unsafe, and the firemen were to all come out.
The trucks will be there all night. My cat is terrified -- when I came inside to get warm she tried to crawl up the leg of my jeans. Barry is trying to get some rest. I can't sleep yet. I have horrible dreams of the house burning down -- I've had them for years. I hated feeling so helpless watching those poor people lose their home. There was nothing I could do to help except stay out of the way. My hair and clothes reek of smoke, and my lungs are stinging. But no one was hurt, and the fire seems to be out now. I can see the house from the window where I'm sitting, and the roof is sill smoldering. But it's under control. I'm just a little shaken, and I feel so bad for the people who lived there.
Posted by Mary Ellen at January 28, 2000 11:00 PM