Multiple businesses were damaged and two people are without a home after a fast-moving fire broke out Sunday morning in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
The flames ripped through two apartments and four separate businesses, including a massage therapy practice, on Main Street around 9:30 a.m. The initial call came from a Hopkinton police officer who saw the flames as he was driving by.
No one was injured, but emotions were running high Sunday night for those impacted by the fire's path of destruction.
"We just started to open up very carefully from Covid being shut down for so long with no income, and now this… it’s just devastating," said Christine Laughran, who owns the massage therapy practice.
"Well I’ve heard that the building is probably going to be a total loss," said Christine Laughran, the owner of the massage therapy practice at 17 Main Street.
"It’s pretty bad," she said sniffling.
Laughran has been coming to work at the practice for the past 17 years and says they had just started to reopen following coronavirus shutdowns.
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"We just started to open up very carefully from the Covid being shut down for so long with no income, and now this," she said. "It’s just devastating."
"This is tough especially the current times that we are in with the pandemic and everything that's going on, this is some really tough times right now," Deputy Fire Chief Bill Miller said.
Sheila Zarba-Campbell says her friend CJ lived in the apartment where the fire broke out. She says he wasn’t home at the time, though.
"CJs someone who brings people together here in town at his café and he will do anything for anyone," Zarba-Campbell said.
She says her friend is in shock, but even before processing his incredible loss, he was in his downtown bakery, making pastries and coffee to say thank you to the firefighters.
Zarba-Campbell says that's what CJ -- and most people in Hopkinton -- are like.
"We come together to help each other out when we need to," she said.
Laughran agrees it's an amazing community.
"I’ve been here for 17 years so… very blessed… lots of loving, caring people here," she said.
Fire officials are investigating what sparked the flames, but the fire chief says nothing appears suspicious at this time.
