Photo and videos courtesy Gerry Mahoney
A view of the five-alarm fire that destroyed two single-family homes on Bay View Drive in Swampscott.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — A five-alarm fire destroyed two single-family homes on Bay View Drive Sunday.
Swampscott Fire Chief Kevin Breen said no one was in either house when the fire struck at around noon. The cause of the fire has not been determined and no one was injured. Nothing suspicious is suspected, but the cause is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s office and the Swampscott Fire Investigation Unit, he added.
The blaze started in the yard between the two Colonial-style houses, Breen added.
He said the fire started at 14 Bay View Drive, when the occupants were at church. It sustained heavy damage and collapsed. Firefighters fought the fire from the outside because it was unsafe to enter.
The other residence at 10 Bay View Drive partially collapsed, Breen said. Crews were able to go inside the home to fight the fire.
Breen said the building inspector will examine both three-story houses on Tuesday, but expects each to have to be demolished. He said five to six people were displaced.
Water main breaks on both sides of the fire made it difficult to get sufficient water to extinguish the fire. Firefighters could only battle the blazes with a limited amount of water. The fires took about six hours to extinguish, Breen said.
Neighbors watching the fire couldn’t believe their eyes.
“It’s just a very sad day for the families and anybody involved,” said Tracy Williams,
who lives nearby on Galloupes Point Road.
Williams said she hopes Swampscott will pull together like it usually does and collect items to help the families. She heard about the blaze from her children, who were at Nahant Beach. She was home and thought it was for a parade, when she heard the engines drive by.
Darlene MacMillan, who lives on Humphrey Street, said she saw the flames before the fire engines arrived. She knows the woman who lives at 10 Bay View Drive. She said the woman lives there with her husband, but neither were home at the time. She said her friend has two dogs and a cat. One of the dogs was with the owner. The fire department was able to rescue the other two animals, she added.
When MacMillan saw the fire, she tried to call the homeowner, but wasn’t able to reach her. She said someone else informed her friend.
“She is a wonderful, kind person,” MacMillan said of the homeowner. “It’s just terrible that this has happened.”
Paul Barr, a Mansfield resident who grew up in Swampscott, said the fire was a tough thing to watch. He was at Eiseman’s Beach before he found out and heard there was electrical work being done on one of the houses before the blaze.
“Everyone’s having fun on the holiday and you have an unfortunate loss of a house,” Barr said. “Hopefully no one got hurt.
Stacey Koch, an Amesbury resident, was visiting her mother, who lives on Puritan Road.
“All I saw was firemen and black smoke,” Koch said.
Mark McEntee, a Humphrey Street resident, said he was at home. He only noticed the fire when there were people gathered outside and he started to smell the smoke.
Jacob Miller lives on Puritan Road and learned about the fire from his brother. He went upstairs in his home to look out the window and saw a “huge fire and smoke.”
“The house was just engulfed in flames,” Miller said. “There was smoke everywhere.”
Bob Wilson, a retired Swampscott firefighter, who lives on Millett Road, said surrounding houses might also have smoke damage. He could see the smoke from Revere Beach on the way home from Winthrop.
“This is just one of those nasty fires you can’t get ahead of,” Wilson said.
Responding fire departments included Swampscott, Lynn, Peabody, Salem, Revere, Lynnfield, Saugus, Danvers, Nahant, Marblehead, Beverly and Middleton. Melrose covered Swampscott headquarters. Breen said the help was instrumental and wanted to thank surrounding fire chiefs and their departments for the response.
“All in all, given the challenges the crews faced, my team and the surrounding departments did a great job,” Breen said.
PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
A Swampscott firefighter reassures Farris Turner, who lives on Bay View Drive.
Large fire in Swampscott pic.twitter.com/bWhc7zE4AS
— Gerry Mahoney (@GerryMahoney) July 3, 2016
3rd alarm Swampscott pic.twitter.com/JpmuViFYtS
— Gerry Mahoney (@GerryMahoney) July 3, 2016
#Swampscott
3rd alarm pic.twitter.com/SglMZWiJu8— Gerry Mahoney (@GerryMahoney) July 3, 2016
Revere Ladder Pipe in Operation #Swampscott4thAlarm pic.twitter.com/RPYZX7hhTb
— Gerry Mahoney (@GerryMahoney) July 3, 2016
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley
