By Kathy McCabe
The Boston Globe
Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company
All Rights Reserved
GEORGETOWN, Mass. — A high school gymnasium was the temporary refuge yesterday for some of the 54 people left homeless after a fire destroyed one of seven luxury apartment buildings in a recently built complex in this town about 30 miles north of Boston.
Late yesterday, state fire investigators worked to pinpoint the cause of the five-alarm fire that broke out shortly after 9 a.m., when many of the residents had already left for work. The complex, called Longview at Georgetown, was built three years ago, and rentals list for $1,185 to $1,550.
Georgetown’s police chief, James Mulligan, said a cause for the blaze had not yet been identified, but it did not appear to be of suspicious origin. No one was injured.
“We’re leaning toward accidental causes,” said Mulligan, who also serves as emergency management director for the town of 8,000.
Brian Coolidge, deputy fire chief for Georgetown, said the building probably is a total loss. The fire is believed to have started in a third-floor unit, he said, “but we don’t know exactly where.”
The fast-moving blaze took just six minutes to go from one to five alarms and spread the length of the building. Some 200 firefighters from a dozen surrounding municipalities spent four hours bringing it under control.
A few miles away from their charred, water-logged residences, some of the displaced residents cried and hugged one another at Georgetown High School, and others paced the corridors, cellphones pressed to their ears as they tried to find alternative housing and begin the process of rebuilding their lives.
“We had several people who were very shaken up,” said Yvonne Zinicola, executive director of the Merrimack Valley chapter of the American Red Cross
Loretta Godfrey, 55, a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, said she had just arrived at work at 10 a.m. when she saw a TV report of a fire in Georgetown and realized it was her apartment building.
She immediately called the building manager, who called her back and told her that the fire was on the third floor and that Godfrey’s second-floor apartment probably would have smoke and water damage. Godfrey left the hospital still dressed in her scrubs and tried to get home, but was turned away by police.
“I’m just hoping I can get back in to see what I have,” she said. Godfrey hoped that she would be able to save her arts, crafts, and Native American traditional dress of her Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine.
Heidi Garofalo, 40, had just signed a lease, but the stay-at-home mother had not yet finished moving into the unit. She lost most of her furniture but was most worried about the photos of her daughter. “That’s what I’m hoping I can save,” she said.
For the meantime, she will stay at her residence in Boxford, which she had been in the process of selling.
There are some 20 unoccupied units in the six remaining buildings in the complex, and those would be made available to displaced residents.
Many are staying with relatives or in hotels, and officials said they did not expect any residents to spend the night in the high school.
Kathy McCabe can be reached at .
A firefighter from Byfield directed water yesterday on the blaze, which went quickly to five alarms. No one was reported injured. A fire drove Corey Valliere (left) and Sandra Arnold out of their apartment at Longview at Georgetown yesterday. One of their cats (in car) got out safely with them, but another was reported missing.