Northampton apartment building falls to raging fire Monday

John Campbell comforts Lisa Campbell while watching their apartment burn in Northampton Monday afternoon.">Firefighters battle a blaze at Meadowbrook Apartments, Building 21, Monday afternoon on Bridge Road in Northampton.">Firefighters back off after making a hole in the roof at Meadowbrook Apartments on Bridge Road in Northampton, Monday afternoon. Below left, firefighters attack the fire as it breaks through the end of the building. Below right, John Campbell comforts Lisa Campbell as their apartment burns.">

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - A fast-moving fire tore through the upper floors of a building at a Northampton housing complex Monday, injuring one firefighter and killing many pets.

According to Deputy Chief David Gagne, the fire and water damage to Meadowbrook Apartments' Building 21 was so extensive that it has been deemed uninhabitable and the 22 residents will not be allowed back inside for some time. Tenants may be able to move into other apartments at the complex, according to a Red Cross spokeswoman.

The structure fire, which began at about 3 p.m. in the bedroom of a second-floor apartment, damaged or destroyed 12 apartments. After escaping the fire uninjured, many stood and watched helplessly as firefighters tried to put out the blaze with their pets still inside.

One Easthampton firefighter, Capt. Steven C. Kennedy, was injured when he was struck by a falling portion of the building's roof and was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. His condition was unavailable Monday night.

Several of the building's elderly residents were taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

According to a number of residents on scene, the fire may have started in apartment 2121, which belonged to nine-year tenant Leslea Duggan.

When the fire broke out, Duggan said, she was at the leasing office talking to the property manager. When she realized the alarm going off was for a fire in her building, Duggan said she ran inside in an attempt to alert other tenants.

"I ran inside because there were people in there that could have died, so I started banging on doors," Duggan said. "I used to be a firefighter for Ashfield so I knew what I was doing and I knew that I had to warn the other people inside."

Duggan said that when she reached her apartment, the smoke was so heavy she couldn't get inside to help her pets, which included a cat, cockatiel, snake and several fish.

One of the first tenants to actually see the fire was Miguel Candelaria, who said he has lived in a third-floor apartment with his wife and 10-year-old daughter for the last five years. Candelaria said he was thankful that he was home when the fire broke out because he normally would have been at work, but called out because of a knee injury.

"When I heard the alarm, I went downstairs and I noticed that it was definitely in (Duggan's) apartment, so I opened the door to look inside and I yelled to see if anyone was in there and saw that there were flames at the end of the hallway in the bedroom," Candelaria said. "That is how it started and when I saw it, the fire was still about the size of a small campfire."

Raw video of the blaze at Meadowbrook Apartments

Although he made sure to go back to his apartment and grab his pet chihuahua, Candelaria said he didn't think to save any of his other belongings because after seeing how small the initial fire was, he was confident that it would be dealt with quickly.

"When the fire department got here, the flames were still just in that room and there were firemen already inside with hoses," Candelaria said. "I don't think it is right to speak badly of the people who went in there and put the fire out, but I don't think it should have come to this."

Where to go

To fight the raging fire, which quickly ripped through units on the top two floors of the building, firefighters initially used saws to cut open the roof before using aerial ladders to pour water down on the fire, which eventually caused a large section of the roof to collapse.

Because Building 21 housed a number of handicapped residents on the lower level, clearing out oxygen tanks inside was also one of the firefighters' top priorities.

Although firefighters were seen running a number of pets out of the building, by the time the fire was extinguished many were still unaccounted for.

Kevin Marshall, who lives in a nearby building, said he immediately called 911 when he noticed the column of dark smoke rising out of the roof of the building.

"This is the worst fire I have ever seen at Meadowbrook," Marshall said. "There were a lot of pets in there. Some people were lucky enough to get inside and get their animals out but others just weren't home when it broke out and by the time they got here, it was too late to go inside."

The complex is owned by the nonprofit entity Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. and is located off Straw Avenue on the eastern edge of the center of Florence, between Route 9 and Bridge Road.

The fire was largely doused by about 5 p.m. and displaced tenants began gathering outside the complex's leasing office for an official head-count and meeting about where they would spend the night.

Volunteers with the Pioneer Valley chapter of the American Red Cross were on scene Monday night and were helping those residents who had lost their homes by providing food, medication and somewhere to stay for the night.

According to Red Cross team leader Bobi Steingart, displaced tenants will gather in the complex's community room today to find out which Meadowbrook building they can move into.

Firefighters from Chesterfield, Easthampton, Hadley, Goshen, Southampton and Williamsburg assisted with extinguishing the blaze.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.