LAWRENCE, Mass. — Estefany Fortunato says she was sleeping with her 2-year-old son when a fire broke out in a multi-family home on Summer Street in Lawrence Wednesday.
She says a bystander ran inside to get everyone out of the building.
“He came inside, and he actually told us there was a fire, like get out the building, get out, get out, so if it wasn’t that, we don’t know what could have happened,” said Fortunato. “I was sleeping with my young, he’s only 2 years old, he could have died today, so I’m really on edge.”
This family was on edge as they waited to see if fire crews would save all of their pets.
Luckily everyone else made it out safely.
Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Moriarty says the fire tore through all three floors in the back of the building very quickly.
He says it’s rare to see a fire this big in the middle of a weekday.
“We had heavy fire and heavy smoke on arrival,” said Chief Moriarty. “We banged out alarms rather quickly because it is a tight, congested area, history of some bad fires.”
The chief says they’re still investigating the cause, but for now several families have been displaced, since it’s no longer safe for anyone to return to this building.
“It was very crazy the whole building was filled with smoke, like you couldn’t even get low to even avoid it, it damaged everything – we don’t even know what we’re going back upstairs to, if there’s anything still there of our stuff,” said Fortunato.
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