HOLYOKE — No one was injured as flames ripped through a four-unit apartment building on the corner of Newton and Cabot streets late Monday night into early Tuesday morning, displacing approximately eight residents, according to Holyoke Fire Capt. David Rex.
Holyoke Police blocked sections of Cabot and Newton streets between about 11 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday as firefighters were seen climbing a ladder onto the duplex’s flaming roof and others were seen entering homes from the front door, evacuating residents.
Upon responding to reports of a structure fire in the apartment and condo block containing 115, 117, 119 and 121 Newton St., Rex said he saw flames pouring from the abandoned unit furthest from the intersection. He said about 90 minutes into battling the blaze, the fire was largely contained to two of the four units.
“The vacant unit that was abandoned was burning. It was already working its way into the next unit over. We ensured everybody was out, we worked to put it out as best we could,” Rex said at approximately 12:20 a.m. at the scene. “Currently, the two closest units to Cabot Street, while there is some damage in there, the fire hasn’t gotten into that section of the building yet.”
In a later interview Tuesday morning, Rex said the fire had spread through the block’s attic space in the early morning hours, damaging units 119 and 121.
“Unfortunately, even though we tried to get ahead of it in the other two units, the fire ran, through … that attic void space. It was already up in there, running across. So try as we did, the third unit ended up getting significant damage on the second floor,” he said. “The fourth unit, the one closest to Cabot Street, did sustain some damage, not as bad, but also on the second floor.”
Rex said he had received “no indication,” as of 12:30 a.m., that the fire was suspicious in nature. He said that while the fire would likely take another two hours to extinguish fully, he was grateful there were no injuries.
Eight fire engines were seen responding to the fire, including mutual aid responses from fire departments and districts in Chicopee, Westover and West Springfield.
Fire investigators were on scene Monday night through Tuesday morning conducting interviews and attempting to determine a cause, Rex said. He said the structure’s working smoke detectors and the neighbors’ prompt reporting of the fire went a long way toward preventing injuries.
“Smoke detectors were working last night and there were people who called 9-1-1 when they saw it. If you see something, say something; we try to promote that every time, even if we did get the call right away, we don’t want people to get lackadaisical on that. A lot of people are used to starting to video it, not realizing they should have called 9-1-1 first,” Rex said. “Residents were alerted by [smoke detectors] and by passerby and they were able to get out of the homes.”
