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Gloucester Fire Update: Fatality Due To Shorthanded Truck?

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THE APARTMENT BUILDING FIRE across the street from the Gloucester, Massachusetts, fire station claimed one life out of the 27 residents.  However, there are questions being raised about the effectiveness of the fire department’s response to the blaze.

The initial dispatch was for a smoke alarm sounding and, according to Fire Chief Barry MacKay, only a “handful” of firefighters answered the call at first.

When the full alarm was dispatched, the department was undermanned by two with only 15 on duty instead of the contract-mandated 17.

The sole victim, a 70-yr.-old man with a disability was seen at his apartment window, waving his hands.  But the ladder truck was staffed with only the driver…. a total of one.  The truck driver was able to recruit two police officers to help him pull a 35′ ladder out of the bed and raise it, but it was too late.

Even though there was only heavy smoke throughout the building when the alarm was sounded, the fire had already spread through the walls and between the floors, making it unlikely that the building could have been saved at that point.

The Boston Globe has an update on these details HERE.

[photopress:gloucester_k_herald.jpg,full,centered]
Boston Herald photo

Posted by on December 16, 2007 • Filed under: fire
  • Anonymous

    Check out the account from a friend of mine who lived there. She heard it started because someone was drying a shirt on a lamp, and said nobody knew what to do with her as she stood there in the fire station, barefoot.

    The station was created after an 1830 fire gutted the entire downtown.

    http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/12/kingcast-says-to-idiot-in-gloucester.html

    And while you’re there enjoy Workingfirefighters.com

    http://workingfirefighters.com/

    Peace.

  • http://kingcast.net/KingCast/Welcome.html KingCast

    Check out the account from a friend of mine who lived there. She heard it started because someone was drying a shirt on a lamp, and said nobody knew what to do with her as she stood there in the fire station, barefoot.

    The station was created after an 1830 fire gutted the entire downtown.

    http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/12/kingcast-says-to-idiot-in-gloucester.html

    And while you’re there enjoy Workingfirefighters.com

    http://workingfirefighters.com/

    Peace.

  • Anonymous

    There’s more but I can’t talk about it because it appears we are getting ready to put the hammer down and this not a public entity so unlike my Right-to-Know actions this one will be handled in court without any comment from the firm I work for or by me.

    Whatever the other media do with it is up to them.

  • http://kingcast.net/KingCast/Welcome.html KingCast

    There’s more but I can’t talk about it because it appears we are getting ready to put the hammer down and this not a public entity so unlike my Right-to-Know actions this one will be handled in court without any comment from the firm I work for or by me.

    Whatever the other media do with it is up to them.

  • Anonymous

    Here’s more that I can say:

    Excerpt from the Gloucester times, which I have emailed and asked for verification that the subject premises had no occupancy permit as you will see in the comments from this post:

    http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/12/kingcast-says-rut-ro-no-building_21.html

    “Carignan said there were no fire extinguishers that he knew of in the building and firefighters didn’t have one on their truck. He helped them to pull the hose in and held it down with them as they sprayed down his apartment.

    Carignan’s two-room, $700-a-month basement apartment was near the boiler room. He said that he’d followed landlord Gary Raso there days before the fire to ask him a question because Raso had not responded to phone calls. Carignan said that Raso told him he couldn’t be in the boiler room and asked to meet him outside.

    Carignan said that before he left the boiler room, he saw a fluorescent green liquid, like anti-freeze, all over the floor. He added that a heating company had been working on something in the boiler room for a week and a half, and he could smell gasoline from his basement apartment throughout that time.

    Carignan said that on the day of the fire, new workers had come into the boiler room. He said they were not from the original company and arrived in an unmarked truck.

    Raso could not be reached for comment yesterday.”

  • http://christopher-king.blogspot.com KingCast

    Here’s more that I can say:

    Excerpt from the Gloucester times, which I have emailed and asked for verification that the subject premises had no occupancy permit as you will see in the comments from this post:

    http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2007/12/kingcast-says-rut-ro-no-building_21.html

    “Carignan said there were no fire extinguishers that he knew of in the building and firefighters didn’t have one on their truck. He helped them to pull the hose in and held it down with them as they sprayed down his apartment.

    Carignan’s two-room, $700-a-month basement apartment was near the boiler room. He said that he’d followed landlord Gary Raso there days before the fire to ask him a question because Raso had not responded to phone calls. Carignan said that Raso told him he couldn’t be in the boiler room and asked to meet him outside.

    Carignan said that before he left the boiler room, he saw a fluorescent green liquid, like anti-freeze, all over the floor. He added that a heating company had been working on something in the boiler room for a week and a half, and he could smell gasoline from his basement apartment throughout that time.

    Carignan said that on the day of the fire, new workers had come into the boiler room. He said they were not from the original company and arrived in an unmarked truck.

    Raso could not be reached for comment yesterday.”