Dawn is just breaking when a fire alarms clamor and sleepy tenants step out of their apartments into a wall of smoke. Firefighters rush to the fire scene — two apartment buildings located on a narrow side street — and realize people are trapped in their apartments by fire.
This was the scenario confronting Lynn firefighters last Saturday morning when a three-alarm fire swept through 2 and 4 Kingsley Terrace located off Chestnut Street.
No one died in the fire thanks to quick, coordinated efforts by well-trained firefighters to rescue more than a dozen tenants using ladders propped against building walls. “The guys did a fantastic job,” District Fire Chief Steve Archer said, offering an unintentionally understated assessment of how firefighters averted tragedy on Kingsley Terrace.
The Kingsley Terrace fire was extinguished only blocks from Bruce Place, another side street near the city’s center, where a fast-moving fire killed four family members in December, 2015. Every Lynn firefighter remembers Bruce Place and every firefighter and anyone else who loves Lynn knows more can be done to prevent deadly fires.
Kingsley Terrace is just one of dozens of terraces, courts, lanes, and “places” dotting the Lynn city map and densely-packed with apartment buildings built when Lynn residents predominantly walked to work in factories.
The city budget must provide sufficient money to ensure fire inspectors and building inspectors can work with building owners and tenants to ensure these old buildings are equipped with all required fire prevention equipment.
Landlords who violate city codes and repair orders should be made accountable. But they should also be able to access public money available to help pay for safety improvement work. The Fire Department is continuing a multi-year push to educate families, starting with children, about fire safety. Hundreds of Lynn school children have learned how to craft an emergency home exit plan with their parents and they have learned flammable precaution lessons.
The department has also helped equip hundreds of local homes with working smoke detectors in a consistent and committed effort to save lives and give residents a fighting chance to flee a fire.
But more work needs to be done, including finding ways to ensure non-English-speaking tenants are educated in fire safety and building code requirements intended to keep properties safe. Lynn has a first-class fire department, but the skills and heroics demonstrated by firefighters can be hampered by residents who do not respond immediately to alarms or who are not prepared to quickly exit a burning building.
There is no reason stamping out fatal fires cannot be a concerted effort undertaken by firefighters, city inspectors, building owners and all city residents.
