Cooking fire damages Lakeport apt. building

LACONIA — Cooking oil which ignited is being blamed for triggering a multi-alarm fire in Lakeport late Thursday morning.

The fire at 728 Union Ave. forced the occupants in the four-apartment dwelling to flee the building.

No one was injured, according to Fire Chief Kirk Beattie.

The chief said the occupant of the first-floor apartment in the front of the building was heating oil for cooking that caught fire.

The Fire Department was called out at 11:08 a.m. The first firefighters who arrived on the scene saw heavy smoke as well as flames coming out one side of the first floor, prompting the request for a second-alarm mutual-aid response to bring in additional personnel and equipment.

“We had no idea how many people might be inside the building, so we needed people to help right away,” Beattie said of the urgent request for reinforcements.

Scott Gelinas, who lives in a first floor apartment at the back of the building said he heard someone say, “We’ve gotta get out of here.” When he looked outside he saw smoke coming out from the basement doorway.

Gelinas said he grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran around to the other side of the building where the fire was. He said he alerted the occupants of the first- and second-floor apartments to get out of the building.

Beattie said he was told that six adults and three children lived in the building. He said the front apartments are not now habitable, and the owner was attempting to see if arrangements could be made to relocate those displaced by the fire into the rear apartments.

The Red Cross has been notified, he said.

This makes the fourth multi-alarm fire in the city in two weeks, Beattie noted.

A fire on April 7 on Highland Street caused the death of an 89-year-old woman. Three days later a three-alarm fire leveled a seasonal residence on Eastman Shore Road South. On April 13 two people had to be rescued from a smoky one-alarm fire in an apartment building on Messer Street.