Dozens displaced after fire at Dorchester triple-decker

BOSTON — From her third floor bedroom, Shawn woke up. She didn’t know why. But then, she heard the alarm.

“I usually will go to sleep, and stay sleeping, but I got up. And I started yelling. I didn’t know what to do, but I did know we needed to get out,” said Shawn. “I was screaming. I didn’t care. I said to everybody get out, get out, get. They didn’t know where the fire was, but we made it.”

Firefighters responded to 34 Stanley Street around 6:15 a.m. on Friday.

The three-alarm fire spread through the back of the triple-decker quickly. Flames on the first floor quickly reached the second and third floors, then hit the attic. The siding on the nearby home melted from the heat.

“Fortunately there was some distance between the two buildings so there wasn’t that much damage,” said Boston Fire Commissioner Jack Dempsey.

Shawn says she heard the alarm, opened her door and there was the smoke.

“I always had a plan, but when it happens, the plan is gone. It was just, get everybody out, scream, yell, do what you have to do get out,” she said. “I wasn’t leaving nobody behind. We had a lot of kids, every floor had kids, so we’re grateful.”

Neighbors say it was Shawn’s yelling that saved them.

Twenty adults and 17 children, including Shawn’s 10-month-old grandchild, and another infant, all got out safely.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but neighbors say the person living on the first floor called the fire department to report a fire in her first-floor bedroom.

Firefighters managed to knock down the flames quickly and stayed on site for hours to put out any hot spots. Damages are estimated to be around $1 million.

“We might have lost a lot, but we didn’t lose our lives,” said Shawn.

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