By Jack Minch
Sentinel & Enterprise
FITCHBURG, Mass. — A veteran firefighter fell through a ceiling while battling a one-alarm fire at the Swagger dance club at 281 Lunenburg St. on Saturday afternoon, according to fire officials.
Lt. Philip D. Jordan Jr. fell 15 to 20 feet onto a cement floor, said Deputy Chief Robert J. Haley.
Jordan, a 20-year veteran of the department, complained of chest and stomach pains. He was taken via ambulance to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
“He looked like he tried to grab the hose line and that may have broken his fall,” said Haley, who was just ahead of Jordan. Firefighters were near the end of a 200-foot hose when Jordan fell, he said.
Firefighters were walking through smoke carrying about 60 pounds of gear in a dark loft above the dance floor when the sprinklers went on, Haley said. There is a suspended ceiling on either side of a narrow plank walkway and Jordan apparently took a misstep, he said.
“He was conscious and alert, the guys were talking to him,” Haley said.
Jordan was in the emergency room but his condition was not immediately available last night, a nursing supervisor said.
A ventilation fan in the loft apparently started the fire, said Haley, who was trying to determine if it was connected to a thermostat that would have turned it on.
Owner Nick Maroun, of Salem, N.H., said he closed Saturday about 3:30 a.m.
“Confused, I don’t get it,” Maroun said. “Never mind the state-of-the-art sprinkler, I don’t know how it got this far. A wet system, it drops water.”
The club has about 20 employees, Maroun said.
Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from the building. They broke down a door to get inside ,where they found flames, Haley said. Firefighters cut a hole in the roof to ventilate the smoke and cut branches of a tree that were overhanging the roof.
Leominster, Lunenburg and Westminster manned the city’s fire stations.
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