By Robert Mills
The Lowell Sun
LOWELL, Mass. — Three firefighters were taken to a local hospital with what appeared to be heat exhaustion after a 2-alarm fire possibly started by careless disposal of cigarettes struck a building at Nesmith and East Merrimack streets yesterday.
Crews were called to 356 East Merrimack St., about 6 p.m., for a report of a fire outside a second-floor porch in the rear of a large yellow home that contains seven apartments.
The blaze quickly spread up the side of the porch and into the eaves and then the attic, according to Deputy Fire Chief Michael Cushing. He said it appears careless disposal of cigarettes was to blame.
On a day when the temperature reached nearly 99 degrees in Lowell, according to the UMass Lowell Weather Center, Cushing struck a second alarm to get more firefighters to the scene.
Resident Charlotte Ciaraldi, who is battling cancer, said she was talking to her twin sister, Suzanne Robertson, when the building’s fire alarm went off.
The women grabbed their purses and cell phones and fled the building.
“I said, ‘Grab your purse,’ and then we got out because that’s what you’re trained to do,” Ciaraldi said. “It’s sad.”
Ciaraldi said firefighters later let her back inside the building to retrieve some of her medical records.
Cushing said he feared the blaze could spread a lot further and credited firefighters for working through the heat.
“I thought we were going to lose it there for a while, but they kept fighting and kept fighting,” he said. “They did outstanding.”
Cushing was initially going to cut power to the entire building, which would have left all residents temporarily homeless, but later decided all but two second-floor units could be reoccupied.
Debbie Duxbury, emergency director for the Merrimack Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, said her organization only had to provide a hotel room for one resident last night. Volunteers came to the scene of the fire immediately.
Three firefighters rested on stretchers and took oxygen provided by EMT’s before they were taken to city hospitals to be checked out following their efforts to battle the blaze. Later in the night, Cushing said all three men were okay.
Tara Robertson, who’s boyfriend Mike Saber owns the building with his father Ed Saber, said she was watching television on the first floor when she hear someone yelling “fire.”
She said someone -- she was not sure who -- rang everyone’s doorbell a short time later.
Mike Saber declined to comment at the scene.
Police closed Nesmith Street from Andover Street to Stackpole Street, and East Merrimack Street from Willow Street to Park Street while crews battled the blaze.
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