A LARGE FIRE IS RUNNING THE ROOF of a Peabody, Massachusetts, apartment complex. The 5-story connected buildings are fully involved and spreading rapidly.
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WCVB
The fire began just over an hour ago around 4 pm Eastern time and no details are available yet. It is a windy day there, just north of Boston, and the job went to four alarms rapidly.
From the views that we have seen so far, it looks like there is a common attic area that connects at least three buildings.
WBZ-TV is streaming live helicopter video HERE. Click on “Live: 4th Alarm…” at the very top of the page.
WFXT is also live-streaming HERE.
Update, 5:40 pm:
The fire has burned all the way down to the bottom floor of the entire building. The FD never had a chance with it. It appeared that the fire was overwhelming their resources before they even got set up. Just looking at the videos, it looks like all-wood construction and I haven’t seen a firewall yet. There might be one, but I haven’t seen it. There certainly weren’t any in the attic.
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WBZ-TV images
Update, 6:30 pm:
The helicopters are leaving the fire scene now. There’s nothing left to look at and they have their other evening news shots to cover.
The FD has confirmed that the center portion of one building was fully involved when they arrived and the fire soon had spread to a second building. Within a half-hour they had to pull out of the building before the roof started coming down. All resources were then directed to containment.
Water supply was a problem. The hydrants didn’t have sufficient fire flow and an 8,000 gal. tanker was special-called from Middleton.
Approx. 30 families have been displaced.
The Associated Press has filed this video report:
