Lynn officers risked lives to reach fire victims

LYNN – Lynn Police Officer Thomas Hazard on Wednesday recounted the three or four minutes he and two fellow officers spent trying to reach a victim in the smoke-filled hallway of 18 Clinton St. during Tuesday’s two-alarm blaze.Hazard said he and officers David Galeazzi and John Marr Jr. forced their way along the first-floor hallway, blinded by heavy smoke and shouting responses as Glaston Edwards, 57, shouted back, “I’m in here.””Visibility was zero,” Hazard said. “I encountered quite a bit of trash, debris stacked pretty much to the ceiling. I was asking, ‘Where are you?’ I grasped an arm or leg but was not able to pull him at all.”Hazard and fellow officers made six attempts to reach Edwards before firefighters equipped with air tanks arrived and rescued the resident.Acting Chief Kevin Coppinger called the officers’ actions “heroic, commendable and a credit to the department.”All three officers, along with three other residents, were treated and released from area hospitals Wednesday. Edwards remained in serious condition at Massachusetts General Hospital.”(The officers) heard screams coming from inside, forced in the front door and found four individuals incapacitated,” Police Lt. William Sharpe said, adding firefighters searching for people inside the house were “hampered by the debris field” of personal property.The officers began rescuing 18 Clinton’s residents as James Terry, who lives across the street, heard children shouting in the street, “There’s people inside.”Terry said he helped one woman off the front porch and then rescued another resident.Clifford Jones said he was watching television inside 18 Clinton when his nephew alerted him to the fire. Jones tried to extinguish the flames with a fire extinguisher.”When it didn’t work, I tried to get my people out of the house,” he said.Fire Lt. David Legere said a neighbor who placed a 911 emergency call routed to the Fire Department saw flames on 18 Clinton’s back porch. Firefighters sounded the first alarm at 9:27 p.m. and rushed four engine trucks and a ladder to the fire.By the time a second alarm sounded at 9:33 p.m., an ambulance, a second ladder truck and three additional engines were converging on the East Lynn street near the Hood School, while police officers blocked off surrounding streets to clear the way for emergency workers.Additional ambulances arrived on the street at 10 p.m. to transport the seven fire victims to hospitals. Incident commanders declared the fire out at 2:56 a.m. but fire equipment did not begin leaving the scene until almost 6 a.m.Fire investigators on Wednesday said the fire started on the home’s rear porch but they don’t know how.Legere said Lynn and state Fire Marshal investigators have not ruled out an electrical malfunction, careless disposal of cigarettes or arson as possible fire causes.Investigators are concerned about the large amount of personal belongings and furniture stored in the house and on its front and rear porches. City inspectors issued 18 Clinton owners Marbline Walker and Clifford Jones two tickets in 2006 for “excessive exterior storage” and two more in 2007 after neighbors complained.”Since then there were no more violations after 2007. I can only surmise they may have cleared it up and it built up again,” city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan said.City officials declared 18 Clinton an unsafe structure Wednesday and ordered the owners to place a fence around it until they can arrange the building’s demolition.Seven people live in the house, according to city records and a family member. They include Marbline Walker; her sister, Helen Swain; Jones, who is Swain’s companion; Edwards, who is the boyfriend of resident Mary Compagna, and her son, Donald. Calvin Jones, Clifford Jones’ nephew, also lives in the house.Siara Swain said her grandmother and other relatives are long-time Lynn residents.Nancy Terry said Swain and her family moved to Clinton Street seven years ago and quickly fit in with reside