LYNN — Well-coordinated work by the Fire Department prevented a basement fire from spreading to the whole apartment building Tuesday morning.
The Lynn Fire Department (LFD) received a call about a fire at 17 West Baltimore St. at 11:11 a.m. on Tuesday from a fire-alarm company, said District Chief Joseph Zukas. The fire was first sensed by a smoke detector that set off a fire alarm.
After Engine 5 and Ladder 1 were dispatched from the Fayette Street fire station, a 911 call reported smoke in the four-story, 31-unit building and the Fire Department decided to send more apparatus to the scene.
At this point, an essential call was upgraded to a working fire, Zukas said. A total of four engines, two ladder trucks, the fire chief, an aide and a safety officer responded to the fire.
Smoke spread throughout the building but the LFD contained the fire to one room in the basement, which was being used as an office. No one was hurt among the residents of the building or the firefighters, who spent about an hour at the scene.
“The coordination and the radio reports from the initial crews were great and everybody worked well together to keep this fire to a very small fire in the basement,” said Zukas. “It could have been a lot worse.”
He praised the firefighters from Division 1 and District Chief Daniel Sullivan for the well-coordinated efforts.
The preliminary cause of the fire was an electrical issue, Zukas said. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Inspectional Services Department was assessing the fire, smoke and water damage and there was no information about whether anyone was displaced from the building due to the fire.
Zukas said that several years ago a fire in a similar building across the street went to multiple alarms, because in old buildings like this the fire travels all the way throughout the structure once it gets into the walls.
“This could have been a fire we were at all day long,” Zukas said.
It shows the importance of working smoke detectors, he said, as the notification about the fire first came in through the alarm system.
