Flames tore through a 6-family home in Roxbury on Monday afternoon, as six adults and four kids inside raced to get out. The fire quickly grew to three alarms and the roof eventually collapsed.
A firefighter was injured while battling a 3-alarm blaze in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood on Monday afternoon.
The fire was first reported around 5 p.m. in a 6-family home at the corner of Southwood and Edgewood streets. Heavy flames and smoke could be seen upon arrival.
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Aerial video from the scene showed numerous ladder trucks and other fire apparatus surrounding the scene.
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All 10 residents -- six adults and four children -- made it out safely, but one woman was wheeled away on a stretcher and taken to an area hospital for evaluation. A firefighter was also hospitalized after being hit by falling chimney bricks.
"I was driving down the street and I smelled the smoke and I looked up to see where the smoke was coming from and the house was on fire," said Thelbert Foster, a witness to the blaze. "So first thing I did was call the fire department and they came out here pretty quickly."
Marime Dickson was sleeping in the Edgewood Street house when a frantic neighbor rang her doorbell. She never heard any smoke alarms.
“I lost everything! I lost everything! I lost my — 42 years of working hard. I lost everything,” Dickson said. “I went downstairs because I live on the second floor. They said, ‘Come on! Get out! Get out!’ I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said, ‘The house is on fire!’”
The fire was quick to grow to three alarms and the roof eventually collapsed.
The weather only made things worse. Strong winds fueled intense flames, making the fire especially difficult to fight, firefighters said.
“Heavy wind up on the top floor with the heavy fire — it just whips up the fire and makes it a blast furnace, so we couldn’t get enough water on it quick enough,” Boston Fire Commissioner Jack Dempsey said.
Concerned neighbors like Kiara Jimenez crowded the streets, sad for their neighbors who are now without a home.
“It’s very, very sad that these people have nowhere to live right now,” Jimenez said.
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One woman who lives there wasn't home at the time flames broke out. She says she received several calls, including one from her mom. When she returned home, she was overcome with emotion discovering she had lost everything.
The heavy fire was knocked down shortly before 6 p.m., but the home is a total loss, the Boston Fire Department said. Crews were working to board up the home late Monday night.
The American Red Cross was on scene to assist those were displaced.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
