Fire damages rooftop of Lynn Tech

LYNN – Fast-thinking workers in a local business and a school prevented Tuesday afternoon fires from causing extensive damage or injury.Firefighters put out a 2:09 p.m. fire on the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute roof near the commuter rail tracks after a worker smelled smoke and checked the roof. District Fire Chief Lee Oliver said an exhaust vent pipe connected to a generator undergoing testing tipped over and the hot metal heated up the rubber roof covering.”If he hadn’t noticed it in time and the rubber got going, we could have had a pretty good roof fire,” Oliver said.No students were in the school at the time and workers and teachers preparing for the start of the school year quickly evacuated the building. Oliver said the roof section around the vent’s base may have deteriorated and allowed the pipe to tip onto the roof.Immediately after extinguishing the Tech fire, firefighters rushed to City Hall Square on a report of a fire in the Fashion Desires store. Employee Stephanie Lugo said workers used a fire extinguisher to douse an extension cord that caught fire in the store’s kitchen area.”We were out front ironing and my cousin spotted the flames,” Lugo said.Emergency medical workers treated Lugo’s mother, Emily Medrano, for smoke inhalation.