Published July 3, 2020
FIRE LT. Derry Madden and Firefighter Bill Stare hoist an attack line to a top floor balcony during Monday’s blaze at 56 West Wyoming Ave. (Photo courtesy of Melrose Fire Department)
MELROSE — No injuries were reported during a busy two week stretch for the city’s fire service.
Firefighting crews knocked down residential blazes on South High Street and West Wyoming Avenue, and beat back a pesky brush fire on remote Mt. Ephraim as part of their regular tours of duty beginning Monday, June 22.
Around 2:20 that afternoon, a labor-intensive brush fire battle began in a section of the city near the rear of the Wyoming Cemetery known as Mt. Ephraim. Crews from all the city’s companies responded and spent about 2 1/2 hours at the scene. Dry conditions left them no choice but to douse the flames with water, a difficult task given the fact there are no hydrants in the area to draw water from.
A Stoneham engine company, a Malden ladder company and a Saugus engine company covered the city’s fire houses.
Every local firefighter was back in quarters by 4:50 p.m.
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On Wednesday, June 24, every available man and woman working a fire shift went to a two-family home at 32-34 South High St. after smoke was seen coming from the second floor by Capt. Kevin Nobile, the first on scene after the Fire Department received a call for help.
The ladder company arrived shortly after 4 p.m. and put its aerial to the roof. Engine 2’s crew got to the scene soon after that, and advanced a line to the second floor to attack the fire. The fact the ladder truck got to scene first was a key part of this battle because of the narrowness of South High, which runs off Vinton Street.
According to Fire Chief Ed Collina, a gas stove in the kitchen of the second floor apartment had become disabled at some earlier point. A technician had to wait for a part to fix the appliance, so the tenant decided to clean behind it while it was pulled away from a wall. When the stove was pushed back in place, the gas line became compromised somehow and began leaking gas. When the stove’s pilot was re-lit, a flame traveled down the gas line to the wall behind the stove.
Firefighters quickly realized what had happened, extinguished the flames and turned off the gas service at the meter.
Crews opened up walls to see if the flames had spread. Luckily, Collina explained, the home had blown-in insulation, which is compacted into the confined space between wall studs, creating little air that would allow flames to breathe and then spread.
Firefighters were on scene for about an hour and a half. Damage has been estimated around $60,000.
The second floor unit was deemed temporarily uninhabitable mostly because of soot damage, the fire chief said.
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The second residential fire battled recently — Monday morning, June 29, at 56 West Wyoming Ave. — was one that had an even greater potential for disaster since it involved a 30-unit apartment building.
While no phone calls reporting a fire were made, all three stations simultaneously received a fire alarm through the Municipal Master Box system just before 10 a.m.
Engine 3’s crew was first to arrive, and Lt. Derry Madden reported smoke showing coming from an apartment on the top floor. When Madden and others entered the apartment, they saw that fire on the floor had gone up a wall, to the ceiling and was starting to go across the ceiling. Madden and Firefighter Bill Stare stepped out on the apartment’s balcony and lowered a rope so the nozzle of a water line could be tied to it. They then hauled the line up and doused the apartment with water. Engine 2 connected a line from a street hydrant to the water supply.
Meanwhile, after putting the ladder to the building’s room, the ladder truck’s crew began a search and rescue procedure on the top floor, which was dark after filling with smoke. All residents go out safely.
The main fire fight took about 10 minutes, and crews then dug out the walls to make sure there was no extension of flames.
Two adults and an 8-year-old child who lived in the apartment where the fire started have been displaced and will be assisted by the city and the property owner. Their unit suffered a lot of water damage and most of their clothing was lost.
Damage is estimated at $150,000.
Of the busy stretch of fires, Chief Collina said, “There were no injuries in any of these calls. A big reason why the city doesn’t have big fires anymore is because the men and women of this department are really good at fighting them.”
