By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
An early Monday morning fire displaced four people in bitter cold and caused traffic disruptions in West Concord.
The fire broke out in a duplex at 1346 and 1344 Main Street. Assistant Fire Chief Brian Whitney said firefighters responded at about 6:30 a.m. after a resident reported smoke in the home.
Concord Fire Department Capt. Sean Murphy said first responders found flames in the ceiling of the building’s second floor. The fire extended to the third floor and, at one point, belched dark smoke into the sky.
Murphy said changing conditions prompted firefighters to sound a second alarm, calling for additional support from neighboring communities. The Concord Water Department and Concord Public Works also responded.
Firefighters helped evacuate one person from the building. Everyone else got out on their own. Authorities reported one minor injury with no hospital transport.
The fire displaced people from both the building’s units. Besides the residents who were displaced, Murphy said one dog was also forced out of the home.
“They did a great job to knock that down as quick as they did,” he said. “First-arriving companies did a great job.”
Firefighters cut a hole through the building’s roof to vent smoke. With their response, Murphy said, they limited the extent of the fire damage to one unit. In an email early Monday afternoon, Whitney said smoke reached the other unit.
The fire and the emergency response left chunks of insulation on the building’s roof. Water from the fire hoses froze along Main Street due to the frigid temperatures.
While crews cleaned up, Whitney said it “looks like the smoke detectors did their job” in alerting the building’s residents to the danger.
Whitney said the cause of the fire was under investigation. In his afternoon update, he said the Red Cross was helping families find housing. The nearby Concord Council on Aging helped shelter people during the actual fire response.
Main Street, which was closed between West Street and Pine Street, had reopened to traffic as of around 9:30 a.m.
The fire came on the heels of a garage blaze at the Concord Commons condo complex on Conant Street that forced residents out of their homes due to a utility shutdown last weekend.
