Lynn firefighter released from MGH

LYNN – A Lynn firefighter has been released from a Boston hospital, where he was taken Friday after suffering from smoke inhalation while battling a Hamilton Avenue house fire.Firefighter Jason Papagikos, assigned to Engine 7, spent the night at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to Deputy Fire Chief James McDonald.”He was treated for smoke inhalation. They kept him overnight to make sure everything was all right. He’s going to return to work on his next shift,” McDonald said.An aggressive fire badly damaged the Victorian-style home at 44 Hamilton Ave., shortly after 3 p.m. Friday.Fire Lt. David Legere, head of the department’s arson squad, said the fire was started by unattended candles.”We talked to the tenant who told us he often leaves seven-day religious candles burning until they go out,” Legere said. “In this case, two of these foot-tall candles had been burning for three days when something pushed the flame and started the fire.”Legere said seven people were inside the house when the smoke alarms sounded – a couple in a bedroom on the third floor and a 19-year woman with her 3-month-old infant and three friends on the first floor.The man who lit the candles apparently occupies a room on the second floor and was not at home when the fire broke out.”Everything he told us matched the evidence that we found,” Legere said. “The candles were burning in his room, which was locked.”Meanwhile in Revere, Fire Chief Eugene Doherty said the fire last Thursday on Dana Street that left 29 homeless remains under investigation.”It’s unknown as this time whether it was a set fire or accidental,” said Doherty, noting that the fire apparently was concentrated at the rear of the two abutting apartment buildings on Dana Street and North Shore Road.Those left homeless were assisted by the American Red Cross and by city emergency officials, who reopened the former Pine Street firehouse for use as a shelter.