By Clynton Namuo
The Union Leader
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Three firefighters were injured during a five-alarm blaze at a major apartment complex off Route 1 early yesterday morning that sent residents scrambling.
The fire was reported just after 3:20 a.m. and engulfed building 16 of the Beechstone apartments. Beechstone includes more than a dozen buildings, many connected to one another in rows. The blaze took about two hours to knock down.
At least 50 people were evacuated from Units 15, 16 and 17.
Resident Amy Schaeffer, 27, said she and her boyfriend, Josh Foulds, 28, awoke to the sound of fire alarms and could see sparks pouring off the second floor balcony.
The couple share a first-floor apartment in Unit 16 and were able to make it out unharmed, along with their two ferrets, two dogs and multiple foster kittens.
“We just gathered up our animals and headed out the back door because we couldn’t leave through the front due to the fire,” Schaeffer said.
Schaeffer, who moved in six months ago, said the damage in her apartment is mostly from water pouring through the floors above.
“You can basically see from our apartment up into the next one,” she said.
The couple hope to find a new place to live soon and will stay with Schaeffer’s mother’s for now.
“We’ve lost a lot; there’s no doubt about it,” Schaeffer said while holding tightly to one of her kittens. “It’s a bad way to wake up, but we’re all out, and that’s what really matters.”
Fire crews were able to save many pets, including several cats and ferrets. A few animals are believed to have perished.
Assistant Fire Chief Steve Achilles said some residents were allowed back in to their homes, but estimated 14 to 18 people would be displaced as a result of the structural and water damage.
The fire appears to have started on the second floor of building 16, which was charred and hollowed out yesterday morning, and then spread to the third floor and neighboring units in buildings 15 and 17, said Assistant Fire Chief Steve Achilles.
“At this time, we have no specific indications that it was intentionally set or there’s any other concern of a malicious cause,” said Achilles, who noted that investigators with Portsmouth police and fire are involved.
The blaze spread into voids in the building and proved hard to put out, Achilles said.
“A number of times our interior firefighters were driven back by intense heat and fire,” he said.
At one point, a firefighter working on the roof was nearly blasted by flames, building 15 resident Patrick Glynn said.
“It burst into his face and he fell over and had to jump on the ladder,” he said.
Achilles said that firefighter was not injured, but three others were. A Portsmouth firefighter hurt his back carrying a hose and had to be taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, as did a Rye firefighter who was apparently suffering from heat exhaustion.
Achilles also said a Greenland firefighter had a minor injury and was treated on scene.
All six apartments in building 16 received fire or water damage and are uninhabitable, Achilles said. One apartment in building 15 and two from building 17 also had fire damage and cannot be lived in.
As many as 18 people may be without a place to live, Achilles said, and the Red Cross is assisting.
Lynne Pointer lives nearby in building 14 apartment five and said she woke up at 3 a.m. to prepare for work. She said she heard a fire alarm around 3:20 a.m. and her son went outside and told her there was a fire in a nearby building.
“I said, ‘bad?’ And he said, ‘Yes, bad,’” Pointer said.
Pointer said she saw fire on the third floor of building 16 and that flames were bursting from the roof early on. She said fire alarms and neighbors alerted residents, who poured into the street as firefighters from across the region arrived.
A man living on the second floor of building 16 had to be awakened by a neighbor, Pointer said.
“The kid who lived in the second floor apartment was sound asleep,” she said.
Stacie Toar, another neighbor, said she came out around 3:30, before any firefighters were there, and flames were coming out of the third floor of building 16.
“It went quickly,” she said of how the fire grew.
Firefighters from as far north as Rochester and as far south as Amesbury, Mass. were called to help, Achilles said.
Paula Glynn, of building 15 apartment five, said she watched firefighters get on the roof of building 16.
“They had to go on and get on the roof and chop open the sky lights,” she said.
The flames were so big, Paula Glynn said, that they even kept her warm on the street, far from the blaze.
The Beechstone complex includes neighboring apartment developments Stonecroft and Colonial Pines, each of which includes numerous buildings with multiple units.
The complexes include entrances on Robert Avenue, off Route 1, and another off Lang Road, which leads to Rye.
A woman who identified herself yesterday morning as the property manager would not speak about the blaze and ordered this reporter to leave the premises.
The Portsmouth Herald contributed to this report.
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