4 of 10 apartments in High Street building were badly damaged by fire

LACONIA — Fire Chief Ken Erickson said yesterday that the occupants of the ten units of the multi-family building at 63 High Street, which caught fire Tuesday night, escaped without serious harm thanks to efforts of the first firefighters to reach the scene.

The 3-alarm fire began near the corner of the porch running across the front and down one side of the two-and-a-half story building to its front entrance. Erickson said that when Lieutenant Jason Bean arrived with his platoon from Central Station, the building was enveloped in dense smoke and fire was racing toward the entrance through which residents sought to leave. He said that Bean and his team — Brian Keyes, Scott Lewandowski, Brad Hardie and Rick Hewlett — checked the flames before they reached the doorway and helped residents out of the building.

Erickson said that the building housed 15 adults and six children, five of whom were taken to Lakes Region General Hospital across the street, one for smoke inhalation.

The Disaster Action Team of the Red Cross officials reported that 23 people — 17 adults and six children aged between four months and 12 years — were displaced by the fire when the utilities were shut down. The Red Cross provided money for lodging to four families.

Erickson said that four of the 10 units were deemed uninhabitable after firefighters took down exterior walls, exposing the apartments to the elements, in the course of fighting the fire. He anticipated that residents could return to the remaining six units yesterday or today once the electricity and fire alarms were reconnected. He estimated the cost of the damage at approximately $75,000.

The first firefighters to arrive reported fire glowing from beneath the northwest corner of the porch. Erickson said that the firefighters were hampered as the fire burned through the porch to the soffit at the corner of the building. "Jay Ellingson was using a chain saw on the soffit when the porch collapsed under him," he said. "If he weren't such a strong guy he could have cut himself or another firefighter in half." Erickson said that containing the fire and evacuating the building was "a lot of work for just five firefighters."

Within minutes after the alarm was sounded, another fire was reported in Belmont. Erickson credited the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association with efficiently deploying the apparatus and personnel between the two simultaneous structure fires blazing so near one another.

Bean's team at High Street was joined by Captain Kirk Beattie, who was off-duty but smelled the smoke from his home, as well as firefighters from the Weirs Beach Station and Gilford. A second and third alarm brought firefighters from Meredith, Holderness and even Belmont. Meanwhile, units from Franklin, Tilton-Northfield, Gilmanton, Barnstead and Loudon were dispatched to the fire in Belmont.