Another suspicious fire hits city
Barbara Tetreault and Jean LeBlanc
BERLIN— Another suspicious fire struck a vacant multi-story building early Saturday morning in Berlin.
The undermanned team of firefighters battled windy conditions and frigid temperatures for more than two and a half hours before the fire at 648 First Avenue was under control.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office. But electricity to the building was shut off and Berlin fire Lt. John Lacasse said it is considered suspicious.
Berlin Police Cpl. Hollie Dube noticed the fire while on routine patrol and reported it at 4:16 a.m.
Assistant Fire Chief Robert Goudreau said when the crew of Capt. Gary Coulombe, Firefighters Jason Vien, Patrick Tremblay and Matt Michaud arrived at the scene, the fire was in the basement of the building but had a good start.
“It was entrenched by the time we got there,” he said.
The doors to the building were locked and firefighters had to force entrance to get to the fire.
Captain Richard Nicoletti said when the firefighters came out of the basement to replace their air tanks; they noticed the fire had spread to the first floor. Before they could get back inside, the fire had continued up the pipe chase to the second floor and attic.
“At that point it got away from us,” said Lacasse.
Lacasse said the firefighters quickly went into a defensive mode and worked to contain the fire from spreading. With the wind blowing embers onto the building south of the fire, the crew waged a tough battle to prevent that building from catching on fire
Police evacuated three nearby homes and electricity to the neighborhood was turned off until 11 a.m. The police station ran on its back-up generator.
Goudreau said the wind was a problem as was icing and the density of the neighborhood. He also said staffing was an issue. The department responded with an initial crew of four firefighters and only three more responded to the scene.
“I had seven people working the fire,” Goudreau said.
Firefighters cleared the scene at 10:42 a.m. and turned it over to State Assistant Fire Marshal Chris Wyman.
The building had been in foreclosure and the bank had just sold it on Oct. 28 for $13,000 to Mario DiCenso of Framingham, Mass, according to the Coos County Registry. DiCenso had purchased another multi-story building on the street last summer.
AI
