There were no injuries, but dozens of people were displaced when a bathroom ceiling fan caught fire Saturday night at a 30-unit condominium building in Haverhill just as snow was fast accumulating.
Haverhill Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien said the department received a 9-1-1 emergency telephone call about 8:50. Six of 36 apartments at the three-story, 440 North Ave., Building 10, sustained direct fire damage. Loss of electricity and water service, however, forced the evacuation of the entire building. The chief explained bathroom fans, installed through the drywall, are a “chronic problem.”
“Basic maintenance. They should be vacuumed out all of the time because they draw in a lot of lint and a lot of that type of thing. When they overheat, they just take right off and they’re in that channel, into the ceiling, which is a natural path for fire spread which is happened in this case,” O’Brien told WHAV.
He said the fire began in a first-floor unit, burning the adjacent apartment and traveling, down the hall and then up three floors. The first crew of firefighters arrived from Engine 2 out of the 16th Avenue fire station.
“This had the potential of really getting away, real fast, given the weather and given the number of people, but they (firefighters) did a great job stopping it,” the chief explained.
O’Brien noted, at one point, 75 people were outside in the cold. Some had access to their vehicles, while others found shelter in a small American Red Cross van and, shortly thereafter, inside a MeVa bus which are routinely provided in such situations. The Haverhill Citizens Center was opened for emergency shelter. Haverhill’s Inspectional Services Department is working with building management to restore utilities to 30 of the units before the end of the week.
The chief said a firefighter was assigned to each resident who required access to their apartments to collect keys, medications money or other necessities.