MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester Fire responded to 361 Hevey Street Sunday just before 3 p.m. for a reported building fire which went to three alarms and involved more than 100 firefighters from Manchester and surrounding towns before the blaze was brought under control.
Companies arrived on scene within three minutes of the first call of a reported building fire. Heavy smoke and fire was coming from the third-floor porch and windows on the Wayne Street side of the building. Crews quickly applied water to the exterior porch area of the third floor to improve conditions for an aggressive offensive interior attack to extinguish the fire, however, the fire was already in the cockloft (the void space above the ceiling and below the flat top roof).
In addition to the hidden fire, tin ceilings made it extremely difficult to access this area. With conditions rapidly deteriorating, a second alarm was initiated, bringing additional apparatus and manpower to the scene. Once it was determined that all occupants were safely out of the building all personnel was ordered to evacuate the building and tactics were transitioned to a defensive exterior attack using large-diameter hose streams and elevated master streams on the ladder trucks. Approximately 100 fire personnel responded to the fire scene.
Some of the occupants from the three-Story building gathered and watched water pouring out of windows and the front door while firefighters continued to stream water.
Battalion Chief Robert Beaudet said Sunday’s high heat created difficult conditions and one firefighter was treated for heat exhaution. Also challenging were the multiple electrical lines in close proximity to the building.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Below: Video footage from the scene by Jeffrey Hastings
