Fire accidentally started by plumbing work
Published on November 13th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - A plumbing mishap in a Walsh Avenue basement resulted in a two alarm fire last Wednesday afternoon that ended with considerable smoke damage inside the home.
According to Stoneham Fire Department reports, a Heritage plumbing employee was replacing a water valve in the basement of 22 Walsh Ave. when he accidentally ignited the cellar paneling and insulation with a pumice torch.
The worker quickly realized that the fire was out of control, and advised the home’s owner, Elio Committo, to vacate the house, and called 911. Engine One, led by Lt. Frank Gould, and Ladder One responded to the one family home at 12:22 p.m., and fire department officials quicky struck a second alarm at 12:24 p.m.
Stoneham fire crews worked rapidly to knock the fire down in the basement. Capt. Ed Regan stepped in as acting incident commander at 12:26 p.m., and “did a fine job”, according to Lamey.
“Any time you have a fire in the cellar, it’s a confined space and it gets very, very smoky,” said Stoneham Fire Chief Lawrence Lamey. “There was a lot of smoke damage throughout the house, and we caused some damage to windows in order to ventilate the home.”
“There is going to be some smoke damage and repairs, but, by and large, there wasn’t a lot of damage to the house,” said Lamey. “It was a good save.”
Lamey attributed the quick actions of the worker and the Walsh Ave. residents as helping to avoide a more serious fire. Stoneham fire officials ruled the blaze as unintentional, as the errant flame of the plumber’s pumice torch ignited the fire.
Engines One and Five, Ladder One, and Melrose fire officials were all on scene, as was Action Ambulance and members of the Stoneham Police Department. Reading Fire provided mutual aid by manning the Stoneham Fire house during the two hour fire.
Many Stoneham residents were alerted to the fire when the town horn sounded off two sets of four blasts sortly after noon. According to Lamey, the horn has been utilized in Stoneham fires since the days of the horse-and-buggy. The horn alerts off-duty and auxiliary firefighters of the fire, and also, depending on the series of horn blasts, reveals the location of the fire.
“We still have a good number of our firefighters living in Stoneham, and the horn alerts them to a two-alarm fire, and the code for the closest firebox,” said Lamey. “In the old days, firefighters would hear the horn, and report to the station. The fire location would be written on a chalkboard, and then all responding personnel would flock there.”
“Today it’s still part of the system,” added Lamey. “It comes in handy when the electrical system or the fire alarm system go down for whatever reason.”
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