Local man perishes in Duncklee blaze
Published on January 10th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - A 74-year-old Stoneham man was killed in a two-alarm fire on the third floor of a twelve-unit elderly apartment building at 77 Duncklee Ave. on Friday afternoon - a result of an "improperly extinguished cigarette" according to the State Fire Marshall investigation.
Stoneham's Engine One and Ladder One reported to the Duncklee Ave. scene just before 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, and observed a third floor apartment unit fully engulfed in flames upon their arrival. According to a public safety source, the victim apparently fell asleep while smoking a cigarette and woke up after both he and his apartment's furniture were already on fire.
"The apartment was going pretty good when we got there," said Stoneham Capt. Joe Rolli. "We think the victim might have passed before we even got on the scene. It seems like a classic, tragic case of an elderly person falling asleep while they still had a cigarette going."
"In those apartment buildings, the alarm in the unit might be going off but the building alarm doesn't start going off until the smoke hits the outside hallway," added Rolli.
Rolli would not identify the identity of the victim, explaining that the family had yet to sign off on the identity of the blaze victim.
Reading Fire Department officials manned the Stoneham Fire Station and Wakefield Fire assisted at the scene while Engine One and Ladder - led by Lt. Jim Marshall, Lt. Jim McLaughlin, Captain James McLaughlin, Brian McMahon and Chris Humber - reported to Duncklee Ave. to battle the blaze.
"We came in, ventilated the apartment and had the fire knocked down in about ten or fifteen minutes," said Rolli.
According to Rolli, the American Red Cross also reported to the scene and helped with some of the other 11 residents at the Duncklee Ave. location that were displaced as a result of water, smoke and fire damage created by the fire - with some of the residents staying with family while several stayed at Woburn's Crowne Plaza Hotel. By 7 p.m. that evening, many of the residents were back at the complex and life returned to normal for most of the other Duncklee Ave. senior citizens.
"There was a bit of a lucky break that the unit under the victim's was unoccupied and vacant," said Rolli, who also said that the last fatal fire in Stoneham took place some ten years ago at 122 Main Street.
Stoneham Housing Authority Director JoAnn Graves was in the middle of dealing with insurance adjusters and maintenance men on the Monday morning following the fire, but was grateful for the dutiful job done by public safety officials during the fire.
"We were lucky in a lot of ways that it wasn't a really cold January day with two feet of snow, and that there wasn't an accident somewhere that would have kept them from getting to the scene as quickly as they did," said Graves. "The fire department did a magnificent job with only six firefighters on duty at the time of the fire."
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