AMHERST — Nearly three dozen residents of a downtown Amherst apartment building were evacuated from their homes for about 90 minutes early Sunday morning after an unattended candle caused a small fire inside a bedroom, said Fire Chief Walter “Tim” Nelson.
Firefighters who responded to the Griggs Apartments, 124 Main St., at 1:28 a.m. were delayed in getting to the building because the smoke detector inside the bedroom where the fire occurred did not function, Nelson said.
“It was a delayed alarm because the tenant of that apartment had covered the smoke detector with a plastic bag,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the candle briefly caused nearby combustibles on a desk, bookcase and wall to catch on fire before going out on its own. “It pretty much burned itself out,” Nelson added.
Tenants in the building had also discovered the fire and were able to extinguish what remained of it, causing heavy smoke to pour out a window.
There was no structural damage to the bedroom.
Firefighters checked other apartments for similarly obstructed smoke detectors.
“We went though the entire building and checked every apartment to make sure no others had smoke detectors covered,” Nelson said. “We found none.”
Nelson said he did not anticipate any fines being issued for the covered detector, observing that the dangers posed by the fire have created awareness for the tenants.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.