Two alarm Pine Street fire keeps locals hopping
Published on June 23rd, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham firefighters spent several hours on Tuesday battling a fire at 70 Pine Street that was reportedly caused by an electric stove that was inadvertently kept on after the homeowner left their residence.
No one was home at the Pine Street residence, when a pair of companies and a ladder truck arrived at the scene at approximately 1:40 p.m.
"There were flames shooting out from the rear of the building, and originally we thought it was a lot worse than it ended up being," said Stoneham Fire Chief Lawrence Lamey. "There was a lot of pent-up heat when we finally got in the house, but relatively speaking we were pretty fortunate this time."
Stoneham firefighters ventilated the roof near the point where the blaze originated, and had the flames contained with an hour of their arrival.
"There's significant heat and fire damage at the point of origin in the kitchen, and there's also some smoke damage in the attic -- and other areas in the home, but it's all things that should be repairable."
A Company of Melrose firefighters assisted when Stoneham struck the second alarm, and a group from Reading manned the station.
The Stoneham Fire Department cleared the scene at 3:06 p.m., and reported no injuries as a result of the incident.
According to Lamey, the fire was accidental in nature and would the conclusion reached by the investigation behind the two-alarm blaze.
"We were at full strength as far as staffing went today, so everything went as smoothly as it could," said Lamey. "Once July 1 comes and we lose some firefighters, it could be a different story."
"That's when you'll have guys overextending themselves trying to do too much, and pulling a muscle or hurting their back," said Lamey. "It's going to be a challenge with both overtime and staffing taking a hit in the coming fiscal year.."
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