Quick response contains Hancock Street fire to one room
Published on August 16th, 2000
Stoneham, MA - Fire in a two-family Hancock Street home hurt no one, but smoke ravaged the first floor office.
"Lucky I came home when I did," said resident Kevin Hardy.
He came home Thursday afternoon and smelled smoke. No on was home. He went inside to check it out.
Hardy lives in one half of the home, his sister Christine in the other. Their father Frank owns the house and keeps some office equipment in a first floor room. The office is now just "a recreational area for the kids," Hardy said, "but there are still desks and computers and chairs in there."
Hardy said that one of the chairs in the office was the source of most of the smoke. He called the Fire Department sat 2:14 p.m. and grabbed the chair.
"I pulled the chair out of there," Hardy said. "It was smoldering. Everything was melted down to the steel."
Firefighter John Scullin pulled Engine 5 in front of 107 Hancock at 2:15 p.m. as Hardy was dragging out the chair.
"I may have saved the house," Hardy said.
Fire Captain Ed Regan commended Hardy but said citizens should always stay out of burning buildings.
"We don't want people getting hurt," Regan said. "They should wait for us."
Captain Regan and Firefighters Scullin and James Marshall entered the home. Engine 4 and Ladder 1 arrived moments later.
Smoke ejectors were used to clear smoke from the first floor room. Firefighters then used the thermal imager, an infrared camera, to make sure the fire was not burning inside the walls.
Regan said that the fire and smoke had not spread past the first floor office.
No dollar estimate of damage has been released.
The Fire Department has not officially identified the cause of the fire, but Hardy thinks a fire in a wastebasket spread to the chair.
The Police/Fire Arson Unit is investigating the fire. This is standard procedure.
"We have no reason to say this fire was suspicious," Regan said.
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