PHOTO BY SCOTT EISEN
Firefighters work the scene of a fire at 22 W. Baltimore Street on Monday. The building burned on New Year’s Day, displacing dozens of residents.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN – One day after a New Year’s fire forced more than five dozen residents into the street, 15 spent Sunday night at Lynn Classical High School.
The six-alarm morning blaze at 22 W. Baltimore St. destroyed the roof and much of the interior of the yellow brick building, in what the district fire chief called a total loss, leaving the occupants homeless.
While most of the residents have been united with family thanks to the Red Cross, many are still waiting to be placed in apartments or housed temporarily in a hotel.
[media-credit name=”Roody Augustin speaks inside the shelter set up at Lynn Classical High School. | Scott Eisen” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]
Roody Augustin, a 54-year-old cab driver and resident of the property, spent Sunday night on a cot in Classical’s gymnasium. It appears he may have lost everything to the fire that scorched his one-bedroom apartment on the second floor.
“I’d never experienced anything like that, it was very scary,” he said. “I heard the building’s fire alarm go off just after 7:30 a.m., so I grabbed my jacket and left everything behind because there was smoke coming out of one of my closets. I heard people in the hallway screaming and headed out.”
Despite the heavy smoke, he was able get down the flight of stairs to the building’s entrance.
“By the time I reached the front door, my eyes were watering,” Augustin said.
For now, he is waiting to see if firefighters can retrieve his wallet, phone and keys.
“When I have those, I can go to a hotel,” he said. “I keep thinking: It could have been worse.”
Michele Desmarais, the city’s public health director, was on hand at the school to help place families into shelter. She said the remaining homeless residents should have a place to go by day’s end.
Another resident, Billy Tuloe, 20, was at work at Logan International Airport, part of a team that de-ices airplanes, said he received a call from his family on Sunday who said the building was on fire.
[media-credit name=”Bill Tuloe speaks inside the Red Cross shelter at Lynn Classical High School. | Scott Eisen” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]
“They wanted me to come home, but I didn’t believe them,”said Tuloe who lives on the top floor with his brothers and pregnant girlfriend. “But when I saw it on the news, I raced home. At Wonderland, I could see the smoke and knew it was serious.”
While his family escaped safely, they have no place to go since their closest relatives live in Georgia.
“Our first priority is to find an apartment,” he said.
Lynn District Fire Chief Arthur Richard and firefighters were back on the scene of the fire Monday after a report of hot spots by the crew that was securing the property.
“The fire smoldered all night long and the crew hired to board up the building noticed there was smoke coming out of a floor board,” he said. “It was very minor, but every big fire starts out small. We used thermal imaging and located a couple of spots that were hot and watered them down.”
Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the State Fire Marshal, said the fire started in a bathroom exhaust fan in a first floor apartment.
‘The fire burned undetected inside the ceiling and walls for a very long time,” she said. “And because it wasn’t burning in areas where there was smoke detection, it got a good hold of the building before it broke through.”
The property is owned by Federal Five Realty Trust in Somerville and is assessed at $1.9 million.
https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/news/lynn-lends-hand-to-w-baltimore-fire-victims/
https://newitemlive.wpengine.com/news/lynn-fire-drives-out-60/
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
HELP OUT: Volunteers are needed to help sort donations Tuesday and Wednesday at LynnArts. Please contact Jolene Kelly at [email protected] or (781) 581-6200.
For those who would like to donate items, Centerboard will open their space tomorrow at 16 City Hall Square from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A GoFundMe has been set up by Jaime Figueroa at https://www.gofundme.com/west-baltimore-st-fire-victims; Figueroa says 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the families.