‘No common denominator’ to string of Nahant fires

NAHANT – A fire on Pearl Road Wednesday night marked the sixth in Nahant in the last five months, a concentration Fire Chief Edward Hyde said he hasn?t seen before in 27 years of service to the town.The Nahant Fire Department received a call at 8:09 p.m. for a fire at a single-family home on 17 Pearl Road. Hyde said the fire was on the second floor of the building and extended to the attic, causing a lot of smoke and significant damage that displaced the occupants of the home. No one was hurt. With Lynn and Swampscott departments assisting, Hyde said the fire was under control by 9 p.m.Hyde praised his firefighters for stopping the fire with an aggressive interior attack. “It could have been a bad fire and they did a great job,” he said Thursday.The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Hyde said officials are “leaning toward an overheated electrical circuit on the second floor.” He said the house is salvageable.As for the other five fires, Hyde said they are purely coincidental. “There?s no common denominator,” he said. “I don?t believe they are related at all in any way.”Hyde said the department has been “very busy” battling a stretch of fires that began with Tides Restaurant on Sept. 25 and included one on Phillips Road, two on Wilson Road, and most recently a three-alarm blaze on Feb. 5 at 37? Castle Road.View video of the Castle Road waterfront fire?I?ve been doing this 27 years in Nahant, and I can?t remember having this many fires,” said Hyde. “It?s highly unusual for being a small, mostly residential community.”Despite the irregularity of such a high concentration of fires in the town, Hyde said he does not think they are suspicious.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].