AMHERST — An electrical issue caused an early morning fire that ravaged the upper floor of a three-story residential building in downtown Amherst Sunday morning.
Three occupants were in the home and escaped uninjured when the fire was reported at around 5:15 a.m., according to Amherst Fire Chief Walter “Tim” Nelson. He said firefighters received an initial report that fire was coming from the walls on the building’s third floor.
“The fire was in the walls and it was probably burning for a while,” Nelson said Sunday morning.
He said smoke detectors and fire alarms alerted the occupants to the blaze. The building has two condominiums inside, one on the first floor and another on the second and third floors.
Nelson said the third floor suffered the worst damage while the second and first floors also had smoke, water and some fire damage. He said firefighters were able to quell the blaze in about 25 minutes, and spent considerable time chasing hot spots in the many voids of the home’s walls.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital for observation and was treated and released, according to Nelson. Firefighters from South Hadley, Northampton, Pelham and Hadley provided mutual aid and Belchertown dispatched an ambulance to the scene.
The Amherst Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit and members of the Massachusetts State Police Fire Investigation unit determined the cause, which they said was not suspicious. According to the press release, the fire started after an “electrical event” on the third floor.
The release said responding units left the scene around 11:25 a.m.
Around noon at the scene, a man who worked for Complete Restoration Solutions, who did not wish to be identified, was busy screwing plywood slabs in place of busted windows.
Other workers bagged insulation on the ground. A charred wood smell lingered and the cellar was full of water from responding engines.
An action figure, toy gun, remote control and an aluminum Budweiser bottle lay scattered on the ground, presumably swept outside of the building by torrents from fire hoses.
“Anything can be fixed nowadays,” the worker said when asked if the building was a total loss. “Maybe a new third floor?”
“We can’t emphasize enough the importance of having working smoke detectors in the home,” the fire department said in a news release. “In this case, detectors saved lives.”
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com. Jack Suntrup of the Gazette contributed to this report.