NORTHAMPTON — The porch of a home at 16 Hooker Ave. just north of downtown caught fire around 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, at the edge of the area that has been the scene of recent suspicious fires.
But it appears that this fire was due to carelessness. Tenant Donovon Cox said he believes the fire began when a resident of the home stubbed out a cigarette beside a porch on the King Street side of the structure and the cigarette fell into leaves.
“I smelled smoke from upstairs and just came out,” Cox said at the scene. Burning leaves ignited the porch, he said.
Officials are investigating six fires deemed suspicious that occurred between March 12 and 21 in the North Street area. One of the fires occurred at 137 King St.
Cox said the porch was in flames when he came downstairs, at which point he called for assistance. “It was a very small fire,” said Cox. “It just had the potential to spread.”
At the scene at 3:20 p.m., there was no visible fire, but emergency personnel busily dismantled the porch and the surrounding first-floor drywall.
Assistant Fire Chief Jon Davine said he and his colleagues were ventilating the home and dismantling walls to ensure that flames were entirely extinguished.
“We just want to make sure it didn’t get ahead of us,” said Davine. “I think if this was 2 o’clock in the morning this would be a different story.”
The cause of the fire had not yet been officially determined.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.