Marblehead fire victim badly burned

MARBLEHEAD – A man was rushed to the hospital with burns from a two-alarm fire on Sewall Street Tuesday night.”I wish I could say nobody got hurt, but somebody did,” Dan Dodge, a resident of the building, said Wednesday as he removed houseplants from his first-floor apartment of the burned Sewall Street home. “Thank God for (the firefighters), they go in when everybody else goes out.”Marblehead Fire Chief Jason Gilliland said that a fire broke out at a 2 ? story home at the corner of Jersey and Sewall streets at 9:12 p.m. Tuesday.The fire was located in the injured man’s apartment on the second floor of the building and overlooking the corner.Dodge said he heard the smoke alarms and met a resident of the third floor who said that the victim was not coming out of his apartment.”We went back and tried to get him, but there was too much smoke,” Dodge said. “We then got chased out by the firefighters.”Gilliland said that the crew of Engine 2 and a police officer at the scene retrieved the resident of the second-floor unit, who suffered severe burns.”They did a great job,” Gilliland said. “It was outstanding.”Emergency workers called for a helicopter to take the victim to Boston, but decided an ambulance would be faster. The victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and was in the burn unit Wednesday. Gilliland said Wednesday afternoon that he had not received an update on the man’s condition.Wednesday morning, municipal light workers were replacing a utility pole at the corner of Jersey and Sewall streets, and one of the second-floor units had charred holes in the windows and walls. Dodge said his apartment was uninhabitable due to extensive smoke damage.Dodge said he had no information on the health of the victim, whom he said had lived in the building for about seven years and was likely in his late 50s.”He’s very nice,” Dodge said of his neighbor. “All the people that live here are great. We’re very lucky to have a good group.”Gilliland said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.