By O’Ryan Johnson
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — Firefighters had their hands full yesterday when a three-alarm blaze struck during sweltering heat then jumped to a building next door, forcing more than a dozen residents into the Dorchester street.
The blaze on Speedwell Street sparked on the second-floor rear porch about 11:20 a.m., fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said. He said the blaze traveled up to the third-floor porch and spread to the roof, where it jumped to the building beside it.
MacDonald said jakes rescued a 45-year-old man from a third-floor window and carried him down the ladder to a waiting ambulance.
MacDonald said the man suffered burns and smoke inhalation but was expected to recover. He said two jakes were hurt. One needed stitches for a cut to his hand. The other suffered a back injury.
Heat from the blaze was so fierce it melted vinyl siding on a building behind it, MacDonald said. He said the home where the fire started houses mentally challenged adults.
He said nine men and women live there. The management company is finding temporary housing for them. He said electricity and gas were shut off. Damage to where the fire started was estimated at $300,000, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
He said when the fire jumped to the home next door, jakes were forced to turn their hoses on that building to put out the flames.
As a result, power was killed to the structure, and all of the buildings’ six occupants were forced out. MacDonald said the Red Cross and Mayor Thomas Menino’s office were on the scene helping residents with emergency needs and temporary shelter. MacDonald said damage to that building was limited to the roof, half of which was charred by the blaze.
Meanwhile, the fire department said the cause of a fatal East Boston fire was an extension cord.
The May 29 fire at a Gove Street triple-decker killed a man and a woman living there. MacDonald said investigators determined a faulty extention cord sparked the early-morning blaze. He said no one would be cited for the fire.
Killed were Jose Santos, 48, who died at the scene, and Berta Hernandez-Santos, 35, who died at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The fire department said these were the first fire deaths in the city since December 2008.
Copyright 2010 Boston Herald Inc.