By Nick McCrea
The Bangor Daily News
BERWICK, Maine — A firefighter from South Berwick suffered minor injuries when an exterior stairway collapsed as crews tried to douse a blaze overnight at a Berwick apartment building.
Berwick Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Plante said Saturday morning that the call came in around 11:40 p.m. Friday. Police, who reached the scene at 28 Old Pine Hill Road South before fire crews, notified dispatchers that the six-unit building was “fully involved,” so Plante called a second alarm, bringing in firefighters from North Berwick, South Berwick and several New Hampshire departments.
“When I arrived on scene, the second floor was fully involved and going to the third,” Plante said.
First responders were told there might have been someone trapped on the second floor, but firefighters had to douse some of the inferno before they could attempt to enter the building.
“There was just so much fire we couldn’t get in,” Plante said. The person who was thought to be missing was soon accounted for, according to Plante.
Around that time, a fire crew from South Berwick was working its way up to the third floor on an exterior stairway, when part of the stairs gave way. A firefighter fell from the stairs, onto a roof outcropping and rolled into a snowbank. Plante did not have the name of the South Berwick firefighter immediately available, but said he was taken to a local hospital and later was released after being checked out for a “sore back and sore hip.”
After the stair collapse, crews were pulled away from the building and chose to “surround and drown” the fire.
“We knew the second floor, with the amount of fire, that the floors were probably gone,” making the building unsafe and further collapses likely, Plante said.
Crews didn’t clear the scene until around 8 a.m. The building is still standing, but is heavily damaged, according to Plante.
“What the fire didn’t get, the water did,” he said.
Plante said he believes there were about 10 people living in the building at the time of the fire. No one other than the firefighter suffered injuries. The Red Cross was notified and is assisting one of the families, while the other residents have found other arrangements, according to Plante.
___
(c)2014 the Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine)
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC