BOSTON — A fire in a Dorchester home has displaced five people, including a 98-year-old woman who had to be rescued from the blaze.
The home on Seaver Street has been significantly damaged by the fire, which spread through the first floor of the building before making its way up.
As the flames spread, frantic residents hurried to get out, but one man had to run back inside the burning home to rescue his grandmother.
District Fire Chief Eric Pettaway says his crews assisted the grandson in rescuing the woman from the third floor. They then rushed her and three others to a local hospital.
“There was a fire going on the front porch and then the wind blew it to the house, into the living room and started trickling up the house,” said Marie Gray, a witness. “He saved her, yes he saved her, everyone was coming out of everywhere but thank God she was out alive.”
“[She was] a little disoriented, a lot of smoke, due to her advanced age, Boston EMS felt it was good to take her to the hospital and get evaluated,” said Chief Pettaway.
“She is a nice lady, I’ve been living over here for 15 years and she’s been over here for at least 40 or 50 years," said Gray.
One thing that helped contain the fire, according to Pettaway, was that one of the doors was closed in one room, preventing the flames from spreading.
“One of the things they tell you to close the door and basically that’s what saved it from going through the rest of the house because the doors right inside this first room were closed,” said Pettaway.
Investigators spent hours combing through the rubble trying to figure out exactly how the fire started. At this point, the official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Fire crews estimate the damage to be at about $100,000.