LYNN — A two-alarm fire ripped through a Grove Street home on Saturday afternoon, leaving four people homeless.
Lynn firefighters responded to the blaze at 19 Grove St. shortly after 3:30 p.m., which took at least two hours to get under control. When crews arrived, they could see thick smoke coming from the front of the two-family home and heavy fire showing from the back of the house, Lynn District Fire Stephen Archer said.
Archer said Lynn Police officers had to help a female resident down the stairs from the home’s back porch — she was unable to get down by herself — but that there were no injuries.
But Archer said the home is going to be declared “a total loss” following the fire. Red Cross is assisting the four adults who lived in the home.
“The Lynn Fire guys did a great job against some really tough fire conditions,” Archer said. “The house had a lot of hidden void spaces where the fire was concealed so they had to do quite a bit of work to open up and expose the fire and knock it down with the hose lines.”
At one point, Archer said the fire was so intense that crews had to be withdrawn from the building, and attack the blaze from the outside before they were able to get back inside and finish up the job. He said the fire was declared under control after a couple hours, but crews were on scene for another few hours mopping up and hitting the hot spots.
Archer said the call came in as a kitchen fire, but it’s not clear at this point where the origin of the blaze was or what caused it. He said it is under investigation by the department’s fire investigation unit, along with the State Fire Marshal’s office.
Lynn Fire was assisted by the Malden Fire Department — about 40 firefighters were on scene.
