LYNNFIELD — Firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at 190 Summer St. early Christmas morning that left a family of five displaced, according to Lynnfield Fire Chief Glenn Davis. The family self-evacuated due to smoke, structural and water damage the house sustained but was and were able to self-evacuate before first responders arrived on scene.
At around 1:50 a.m. on Sunday, dispatchers received a call from one of the homeowners about a fire that had started in the basement of the house. Engine 3 responded quickly to the scene, getting to the house approximately three minutes later at 1:53 a.m. Upon arrival, Captain Kevin Mutti to find the family had evacuated the building. He reported smoke from the basement and the chimney near the roof line. He then determined that the fire had spread from the basement to the first and second floors walls of the home.
Davis arrived about a minute after the Engine 3 crew and sounded a second alarm.
“It all happened so fast,” Davis said. “The first five minutes of are all about life safety and we were fortunate to have had such a quick response otherwise it could have been worse.
Firefighters fought freezing conditions. Davis commented on battling the blaze in the harsh weather.
“Cold night, it was about 12 degrees outside, so it was very cold operating out there,” he said.
North Reading, Middleton, Wakefield, Reading and Saugus all provided assistance on scene, with Peabody and Lynn providing station coverage. After roughly one hour, the fire was brought under control.
In a written statement, Davis said the quick response and aid from surrounding communities was crucial to minimizing the damage done to the house.
“The combination of rapid response time by first arriving fire companies and the strong support of our mutual aid partners helped keep the loss from being much worse,” he said.
Davis said that as of Monday morning, the family is still displaced.
The cause of the fire is unknown at this time and an investigation is currently underway by the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal’s Office, though Davis notes that nothing has been deemed suspicious and it appears to be an accidental fire.
Davis commended the work of Mutti and his Engine 3 crew for a quick response to prevent further damage. Davis said the crew just returned to the station from a mutual aid request in Peabody only minutes before the alarm was sounded.
“Kevin’s crew had just gotten back to the station a minute or so after the alarm sounded and they wasted no time at all responding and the homeowner was still awake and smelled the smoke and saw the fire in the basement.
