Quick response contains blaze on Plum Island
Firefighters from a nearly a dozen North Shore communities who battled a raging, fivealarm fire that consumed a home on Plum Island yesterday are being credited with preventing the blaze from spreading throughout the neighborhood.
“This was an extremely large fire that quickly engulfed the home and required an aggressive exterior attack,” Newbury fire Chief Nathan Walker said in a statement. “Thank you to our neighboring fire departments who came to our aid. With their assistance, we were able to prevent serious damage to surrounding homes.”
Firefighters responding to a reported structure fire on 20th Street about 1 p.m. found heavy smoke pouring out of a three-story wood frame home, Walker said. After a five-alarm response was ordered, firefighters from Newburyport, Groveland, Georgetown, West Newbury, Ipswich, Amesbury, Merrimac, Haverhill and Hampton, N.H., responded to the scene.
Although the home and several nearby vehicles were completely destroyed in the fire, Walker said “quick firefighting efforts” saved two adjacent buildings that suffered heat damage.
No one was inside the home when the fire broke out and there were no reported injuries. Several firefighters were evaluated for heat exhaustion and one firefighter was taken to an area hospital to be treated.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by members of the Newbury Fire Department and state troopers assigned to the state fire marshal’s office.