EASTHAMPTON – Four people are displaced from their homes and a business is temporarily shut down after a fire ripped through a Union Street building early Monday morning.
Firefighters responded to the blaze at 39 Union St. at around 5:20 a.m. after receiving a 911 call from Snap Fitness, which is located on the ground floor. No injuries were reported.
“They found heavy fire on the roof at the rear of 39 Union St.,” Easthampton Fire Chief David Mottor said of firefighters at the scene. “It spread underneath the roof and into the ceiling of Snap Fitness.”
Mottor said a state trooper assigned to the state Fire Marshal’s Office determined the cause was careless disposal of smoking materials, and that it appears a mattress on a roof deck caught fire.
“One of the occupants thinks he may have dropped a cigarette butt on it late last night,” Mottor said.
The building was home to a family of three in one second-floor apartment and a single tenant in another unit. A third apartment in the building was vacant, according to Mottor, who estimated the damage at $25,000 to $30,000. Firefighters spent about 40 minutes extinguishing the main blaze, which resulted in heavy fire and water damage to the building, he said.
Union Street was shut down for more than three hours while firefighters worked at the scene and was reopened to traffic at around 9 a.m. The American Red Cross is assisting the displaced tenants with housing.