4-alarm fire started in building occupied by homeless, mayor says
Lawrence firefighters battle blaze on Summer Street
UPDATED 12:19 PM EDT Aug 25, 2016
LAWRENCE, Mass. —A fire destroyed two buildings and damaged four other apartment buildings early Thursday in Lawrence.
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said 29 Summer Street was occupied by homeless people just before the flames lit up the sky early Wednesday morning.
"Because of the homelessness issue, we had somebody using an inappropriate space, and that's where the fire started,” he said.
Investigators are working to determine the cause of the four-alarm fire. The heat was so intense that the siding of a nearby home melted off. The flames jumped to other houses in the neighborhood.
"The actual fire building is a complete loss, and the exposure on the, what we call the delta side, the right-hand side of the house, is only a 4-inch alleyway. We had multiple triple-deckers in the back, before you even get to the next street,” Lawrence Fire Department Chief Brian Moriarty said.
Residents of surrounding buildings were evacuated.
Rivera called the abandoned house a "problem property" that the city had been fighting to have torn down.
"We're trying to figure out our homeless issue here, so trying to get places for people to go, and when you don't have that, people are going to figure out a way to squirrel away,” he said.