No injuries in Lynn group home fire

LYNN – Fire officials reported no injuries at a two-alarm fire Sunday night in the attic of a North Common Street group home for disabled persons.A home resident was also reunited with her very wet and scared cat.Firefighters responded to 99 North Common St., on the corner of North Common and Baker streets, at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday on the report of a fire. Within minutes, firefighters, rescue workers and police had shut down North Common Street from Fecteau-Leary Junior/Senior Alternative High School to Whiting Street to battle flames in a large, wood-frame, two-story building.The property is a residential home for Bridgewell Inc., which provides services for persons with disabilities. A Bridgewell employee on scene said the building has seven apartments and about 10 residents.The flames originally appeared concentrated at the rear of the attic floor of the home. But smoke and flames appeared in each dormer window as the fire progressed to the front of building. Flames consumed the front dormer by approximately 9:30 p.m., and a section of the roof collapsed.A large crowd of onlookers at the scene cheered at one point as an aerial hose doused flames that appeared at the peak of the home’s roof.Fire officials at the scene said there was no indication of what caused the blaze but that all residents were safe. A brown-and-orange-spotted cat was rescued from the home and handed off to emergency medical workers looking quite traumatized and thoroughly soaked. The cat’s owner appeared at the scene about an hour later and was reunited with the animal and also received services from the Red Cross.The blaze continued at deadline.