Seven Rescued by Firefighters, Police from Gloucester, MA, Building Fire
Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
(TNS)
A retired firefighter and on-duty police officer likely saved the lives of two women Saturday night when a fire erupted at a condominium on Pirmi Lane in Gloucester.
Five other people were pulled from the building while the fire was raging, including one who was rescued from an outside balcony, fire Chief Eric Smith said.
Two residents and three police officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, he said, while another resident drove to the hospital for treatment.
The occupants of all 10 units are displaced. It is believed that the development had about 20-25 residents.
Women’s rescue
Stephen Aiello, who retired from the Gloucester Fire Department more than three years ago, heard the police report the fire on his scanner and jumped to the scene, living just a short distance away. He saw a police cruiser had also arrived.
Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, he went to the back of the 10-unit building that was in flames and started ringing all the buzzers to alert the residents. The temperature at 10:30 that night was below freezing, hovering in the mid-20s.
“I knew that it was an over-55 housing development and I had a gut feeling that I needed to do something and I was on scene in two minutes,” Aiello said. “Those of us who are public servants would have reacted the same way. While driving there, my training kicked in, and my experience told me that most people exit a building the way they enter it.”
When he arrived, the fire was on the side of the building facing O’Maley Innovation Middle School so he pulled around to where the back door and garages are located. He immediately began banging on the door and ringing all the buzzers.
“I expected that in an over 55-community after 10:30 p.m. that most would be asleep in bed, and I kept ringing and ringing every buzzer and pounded on the door hoping to wake people up and thinking someone would buzz me in. The fire above my head was intense,” he recalled. “Then I heard the fire alarms activate. It was pretty intense at the time. The entrance door was below where the fire was.”
Aiello was joined by Office Kevin Mackey as they saw the flames racing up the side of the building.
“I thought about breaking the plate glass on the door, but I didn’t want to lose door control and allow unwanted oxygen to enter and feed the fire,” Aiello said.
The fire is believed to have started on an outdoor balcony, which is why the alarms didn’t go off immediately.
“A man exiting the building threw us his keys that enabled us to get in the building,” Aiello said. “The heat was intense and it was hot and smoky in there.”
They went up the stairs to the third floor where smoke was filling the stairwell and they found a woman in her early 70s calling for help.
“She was covered in soot from head to toe and having difficulty breathing. As we attempted to carry her from the building, she told us her aunt was still in the apartment,” Aiello said.
When he opened the door, Mackey shined his light into the smoke-and-heat filled apartment, and Aiello only could see the soles of the feet of the woman, in her early 90s, who was lying on the floor.
“I got down flat on the floor because the smoke was too thick and acrid to stand,” Aiello said. “I took a deep breath and crawled in and grabbed her by the ankles.
“I was able to drag her to the door where Officer Mackey and I removed her from the apartment into the hallway, and we closed the door behind us to limit the smoke in the stairwell. Officer Mackey and I were soon joined by other officers including Officers Keith Gaudenzi and George Carr.”
They suspect the woman may have been overcome and collapsed on the floor where they found her inside the apartment.
When they got the two women to a safe place in the grassy area near Osman Babson Road, they began administering oxygen to them and wrapped them in blankets until ambulances arrived.
On Sunday morning, Aiello said he was fine, but had a bit of a sore throat, and some bumps and bruises and abrasions on his knees.
“The funny thing about it, after all was said and done, afterward on the lawn with these two women, Officer Mackey says to me ‘So this is how your enjoy your retirement?’,” he said.
The other part of the story is that Aiello, a die-hard Patriots fan, was watching a Hallmark Christmas movie with his wife at the time of the fire. It was “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.”
“Being a Patriots fan, I wasn’t a fan of the movie so the irony is that I had a way out of watching that one,” he said with a chuckle.
Sunday morning update
Smith was at the scene Sunday morning at 3 Pirmi Lane. The smell of fire still lingered as a crew worked to board up the damaged building. The damage is not visible from Washington Street, but the view at the back reveals the V-shape pattern of the blaze on the charred section of the building.
The state Fire Marshal’s office is investigating. The Gloucester Fire Department is gathering information from the residents to put together a timeline, Smith said.
“The fire was well involved when firefighters arrived on scene and the fire was under control shortly after,” he said. “We’re fortunate that our folks were able to get everyone out fairly quickly. Our crews did a great job.
“Unfortunately, we have many displaced families as the entire building had to be shut down, and it will be some time before these residents will be able to get back into their homes.”
The development’s association is working with the Fire Department to obtain details about all the people affected.
The Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Rockport and Ipswich fire departments helped assist at the scene, as well as the Danvers, Beverly and Hamilton fire departments, which provided station coverage for Gloucester.
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