By Robert Mills
The Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
LOWELL, Mass. — A fire that started in a bedroom left two people homeless yesterday afternoon, but firefighters reacted quickly enough to keep most residents of an eight-unit building on Walker Street living in their apartments.
Firefighters were called to 384 Walker St., a three-story apartment building about a block from Westford Street, about 4 p.m., and quickly knocked the fire down.
The blaze was contained to the third floor, where Delores Brown said she had just eaten dinner when she began smelling smoke.
“I opened the bedroom door and it was on fire,” she said.
She and Al Chateauneuf fled, but not before alerting neighbors, including Paula and Mike Thibodeau.
Paula Thibodeau was watching television when Brown knocked on her door, and then even broke her window to get her attention.
Thibodeau is on crutches from recent surgery on her leg, so she slid down the stairs with her cat.
Mike Thibodeau, Paula’s brother, who lives in another apartment, said he ran upstairs with a fire extinguisher but realized immediately that he couldn’t help.
“There were embers flying around,” he said. “I have a little extinguisher but it wasn’t going to do any good.”
Lowell Deputy Fire Chief Phil Lemire said the cause is under investigation. He said no one was hurt and fire damage was contained to the third floor, with the second floor sustaining a small amount of water damage.
Lemire said only the third-floor apartment was left uninhabitable. Everyone else was able to return to the building last night.
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