(Additional photograph below.)
Haverhill firefighters battled back-to-back fires Tuesday night, one in a vacant downtown building slated for redevelopment, with no injuries reported or residents permanently displaced.
Fire Chief Christopher Cesati told WHAV an automatic master box alerted the department at 5:44 p.m. to, what turned out to be, a basement laundry room fire with heavy smoke at Columbia Park apartments, 449 Main St.
“They got a quick knock down on it. There was an extensive amount of smoke. They evacuated the building. It was a dryer fire,” he said.
Residents were temporarily evacuated from the building, owned by Emmaus and used for supportive family housing. The chief said occupants were able to stay warm and dry on a MeVa Transit bus that was called to the scene. It took firefighters about a half hour to clear smoke and get the fire system back online. Fire inspectors are investigating the exact cause.
Meanwhile, mutual aid crews from Salem, N.H., Groveland, Methuen, Lawrence and North Andover covered stations. They were still on duty and responded when a resident reported flames on the fourth floor of a vacant building at 129 Merrimack St.
Cesati said the Salem, N.H., ladder truck was deployed and firefighters were able to open windows on the front fourth floor to get at the fire, while another crew worked their way through the interior.
“It was in the early stages. So, fortunately, that woman had seen it. Otherwise, we probably would have taken the building down,” he said.
The chief said the building is boarded up, but still had power to it. The cause is also being investigated.
The 1880-era building was once owned by Lupoli Companies and, as WHAV reported last month, is proposed to be combined with a former dental office next door as part of a plan to build a day care center and apartments.
Haverhill firefighters quickly extinguished a laundry room fire with heavy smoke at Columbia Park apartments, 449 Main St. (Photograph via Gary Huber, Essex Alert.)