Firefighters rescued a family of three from a burning home in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on Thursday morning.
Fitchburg firefighters responded to the triple decker home on Plymouth Street shortly before 8 a.m.
One of the residents, Abraham Acevedo, says he was asleep on the third floor when the fire is believed to have broken out in the basement and then extended up the porches, filling their apartment with smoke.
“The first floor called and said the house was on fire and then we got here, and it was in flames,” said Katelynn Lydon, who was dropping her daughter off at school when her apartment caught fire.
Flames and smoke spread quickly Thursday morning as this triple-decker on Plymouth Street in Fitchburg caught fire.
“When I woke up, I tried to open the door on the left side, I can’t go through there, the left side, because of the fire is coming up,” said Acevedo.
Acevedo says he tried to get his wife, 19-year-old step-daughter, and their dog out of their third floor apartment, but ran into a wall of thick, black smoke.
“I hear somebody screaming, when I opened the bedroom door, I see all the smoke in all the apartments,” said Acevedo.
“There was people that were trapped on the top floors, the guys pulled them out without injury,” said Acevedo.
Deputy Fitchburg Fire Chief Patrick Roy said Engine One crews were able to get to the Acevedo family through the stairwell and guide them out…assisting residents on the second floor as well.
Then with the help of several surrounding fire departments, they were able to put the flames out and rescue multiple pets in the process.
“The fire came up the porches, and extended into each floor,” said Deputy Chief Roy, “Usually these three-deckers it gets up into the cockloft and the guys just knocked it down, they did a phenomenal job.”
No one was hurt in the fire.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
