By Catie O’Toole
syracuse.com
MASSENA, N.Y. — Three people were killed and five others rescued after an apartment caught fire early Monday in St. Lawrence County, officials said.
The fire, at 419 S. Main St. in the village of Massena, started shortly before 2 a.m., Massena Fire Chief Pat O’Brien said.
Massena firefighters arrived within three minutes after they were called to the scene, the chief said. When they arrived, firefighters saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the second floor of the multi-unit apartment building, O’Brien said.
A flashover — when everything in a room reaches the right temperature to ignite at once — happened in both second floor apartments as firefighters were starting to search for people inside the building, the chief said.
Five people on the first floor, along with several pets, were able to get out safely, he said.
However, three residents died in the fire, Massena police and the village fire chief said. The St. Lawrence County coroner pronounced all three dead at the scene, the fire chief said.
The names and ages of those killed in the fire have not yet been released.
The American Red Cross is helping the residents who survived the fire find temporary housing because they were unable to return home, O’Brien said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Massena police and fire departments, the Massena Rescue Squad, Seaway Valley Ambulance, Village of Massena Department of Public Works, Massena Electric Department, St. Lawrence County Office of Emergency Services, St. Lawrence County Fire Investigative Team, state police, the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control, the Red Cross, and Louisville, Brasher-Winthrop, Norfolk and Hogansburg-Akwesasne fire departments responded.
“It is a tragic event,” Massena police dispatcher Santo Francello said Monday evening.
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