A 4-ALARM FIRE BURNED OUT BOSTON, Massachusetts’, oldest existing grocery store Thursday. The fire started shortly after 10:30 am in the basement of DeLuca’s Market on Beacon Hill when the electrical box shorted out and sent a fireball into the stock-filled area. The fire quickly spread through the entire basement and into the sales floor above.
Boston Globe
The incident brought 75 firefighters to the scene on one of Boston’s hottest days where they were unable to advance the hoselines into the basement until they had attacked it from above for more than an hour. The fire and the large amount of stacked cartons filling the basement mandated the remote attack.
When the fire started, an off-duty firefighter from Ohio, who was shopping there, told employees to stay out of the basement and would not leave until he made sure everyone else was safe, according to a store employee.
WFXT-TV Ch. 25 has this video report from the scene:
The investigators will not begin to search through the basement until later this weekend because the water in the basement is 6 feet deep and needs to be pumped out first. All of the apartments in the floors above the market are completely smoked up and will require extensive remodeling before they can be made tenable again. Damage estimates are more than $1 million.
This is the second time that DeLuca’s has had a major fire, having been burned out once before in 1983.
Joseph S. DeLuca, an Italian immigrant, bought the store (that began business in 1905) in 1919, and it has not left the family since. It is the oldest grocery in Boston, according to its website, and, for many, the kind of place that grounds one of the city’s most storied neighborhoods.
“The store itself is a landmark,’’ (current owner Virgil) Aiello said. “It’s a small family-run business that’s continued for three generations.’’
The Boston Herald has MORE.
The Boston Globe has a 15-image photo gallery HERE.
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