Fire in MA Multi-Family Home Claims Third Victim

Lorraine and Woodrow Adams Sr. were just weeks away from celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, planning to mark the March 27 occasion with a relaxing trip to Mexico.

Instead, their love story has been cut short. On Saturday afternoon, hours after a five-alarm fire ripped through their three-decker home in Worcester, Lorraine was at Massachusetts General Hospital, listening to the couple’s pastor sing and pray as her 71-year-old husband died from injuries he suffered jumping from the home’s third-story porch to escape the flames.

“It’s a big loss,” Lorraine said. “We were looking forward to our son and his fiancee getting married, going on vacation. He was retired. I was not working, I’m retired, and it didn’t go as planned.

The family had already suffered the loss of Edna Mae Williams and Gerald “Jerry” Prince, Lorraine’s mother and brother, who succumbed to flames on the first floor of the family home at 13 Jaques Ave.

“We had a good life,” Lorraine continued, a pained tremor in her voice. “We raised our children, our grands, we had great-grands, and I thought we would have a little more time.”

The one thing that gives Lorraine some peace, she said, was that her husband passed without suffering.

“He went peacefully. He didn’t struggle, a tear came down, his mouth opened up a little bit, and he went out,” Lorraine said. “I was so thankful for the doctors and nurses, the support, the hard work that they did. They tried everything.”

The blaze broke out at both 13 and 11 Jaques Ave. around 7:30 p.m. Friday. The flames at 11 Jaques Ave. was quickly brought under control, but conditions worsened at 13 Jaques Ave.

Worcester officials on Saturday said that the fire started either in the basement or on the first floor of 13 Jaques Ave. and had been burning in concealed spaces for some time before it was discovered and reported. The blaze remains under investigation but is not considered suspicious.

“I couldn’t hear them anymore. I never heard my mother call out anything. I said ‘they’re gone,’” Lorraine recalled.

Woodrow described his grandmother as the pillar of the family. Edna took care of the family, particularly babysitting her grandchildren, until she got sick, Lorraine said.

“She would always tell us, you’ve got to stick together,” Lorraine said of her mother. “You’ve got to stick together. Love one another.”

Jerry, 61, had suffered several strokes and seizures, Lorraine said. At frequent hospital visits, he was known for his smile.

“No matter how sick he was, he would always have that smile,” Lorraine said. “When I would take him to appointments or doctors they would say, ‘you know, we’ve never seen anything like this.”

Tears streamed from Lorraine’s face when a family member from South Carolina called on Saturday evening with a prayer. Members of the Adams family, who had gathered at the Marriott hotel on Grove Street, bowed their heads.

In total, 13 residents were displaced because of the fire. Woodrow started a GoFundMe page to help the family rebuild. The Adams family said they’re incredibly thankful for the outpouring of support.

“My grandmother, my uncle, my father, they will truly be missed,” Woodrow said. “There’s just no words for this.”

But the family knows they’ll make it through this tragedy.

“There will be tough times. We will cry. We will think about the what-ifs, why did this happen,” Woodrow said. “All these things will happen but we have enough faith and belief that there’s a reason behind this. God has a bigger plan than what we know.”

These are Worcester’s first fire fatalities of 2021. There were two fire fatalities last year.

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