Firefighters Rush to Williamsburg
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: RICHARD NADOLSKI
WILLIAMSBURG, MA – A fire that apparently started in the ceiling of a first-floor apartment of a house on Mountain Street damaged that unit and one upstairs before being extinguished by firefighters yesterday.
Volunteer firefighters from Williamsburg, Goshen and Chesterfield responded to the 11:38 a.m. blaze in the 2 1/2 story, frame and aluminum sided house at 83 Mountain St. that belongs to Katherine Gorham.
Gorham was not at home at the time but the fire was detected by her tenant, Elizabeth Smith, 19, who lives in a downstairs apartment in the three-unit structure.
Smith said she was in her apartment when her lights flickered and she heard a popping sound. She said she noticed the smell of what she thought was fireplace smoke followed by the sound of dripping water that suddenly turned into what sounded like “buckets” of water falling.
She ran outside and around the house to the back where she saw smoke pouring from the back door of Gorham’s second-floor apartment.
Smith said she looked into a vacant apartment located under Gorham’s unit and adjacent to hers and saw a hole in the kitchen ceiling and water pouring down. She said she ran into the house and immediately called firefighters.
Within minutes, Williamsburg volunteer Firefighter Timothy McQueston, who lives nearby, arrived and ran into the house. He confirmed the structure fire and called for more assistance. The Goshen and Chesterfield volunteers were immediately dispatched to give assistance.
Fire Chief Roger Bisbee said the fire apparently started in the kitchen ceiling of a vacant apartment and worked its way up to a kitchen closet in Gorham’s apartment and into the ceiling. The fire had apparently melted the solder around joints in a water pipe that began gushing water.
Bisbee said that the water probably controlled the blaze somewhat and allowed firefighters to arrive and extinguish it within a half hour.
While the fire caused some damage to both Gorham’s and the vacant apartment, much of the ceiling in the vacant unit downstairs and Gorham’s kitchen floor had to be removed by firefighters in order to get at the fire. There was smoke damage throughout both apartments and some water damage. Smith’s apartment was not damaged.
Gorham said she has owned the house for three years and was in the process of remodeling the vacant apartment underneath her. She said the structure is covered by the Neill and Neill Insurance Co. of West Springfield.
Besides several pumpers and a water tank from Williamsburg, Goshen’s Fire Department sent a pumper, an ambulance and the Hampshire County Fire Defense Mobile Air Supply Unit that provided several air packs for the firefighter’s use during the smoky blaze. Chesterfield sent a tanker unit.