'Catastrophe' averted: A crazy sequence of life-saving events in Fall River

FALL RIVER -- Thanks to swift actions by city and fire inspectors, and a bit of serendipity, tragedy was avoided Tuesday morning when residents were evacuated from a multi-family home at the corner of East Main and Peckham streets in a swift moving fire -- while a safety inspection of the building was being conducted.

Fall River Fire Inspector Jason Campbell has no doubt that if the inspectors hadn’t been on the premises when the fire broke out, there could have been fatalities.

“I still can’t believe how fast it moved,” Campbell said.

Problems at the property on 179 East Main St. came to the attention of the building inspectors through an online complaint by a resident, citing no hot water, structural problems and an infestation of mice and rats.

Clerk Brenda Beaudry dispatched minimum housing inspector Aline Jeronimo to the property. When she arrived and saw the conditions, she immediately indicated she needed the building inspector.

The city’s new building inspector, Glenn Hathaway, arrived at the property. Hathaway noticed, among other issues, that the fire alarms weren’t operational and called in Campbell and Fire Inspector Todd Young. (Hathaway's appointment was approved by the City Council later Tuesday night during its regular meeting.)

Hathaway said he went to inspect a third floor apartment where the complaint was generated. While talking to one of the residents, he noticed smoke in the hallway. The tenant explained his girlfriend had just smoked a cigarette before leaving with their baby.

Jeronimo noted in a report that she saw an ash tray on a second floor railing.

Meanwhile, Campbell and Young went their separate ways to inspect different areas of the multi-family home. Campbell said Young headed down to the basement area.

Then all hell broke loose and flames started shooting from the top floor.

Campbell noticed smoke coming from the third floor. Hathaway and Jeronimo were outside when someone shouted to them that smoke was coming from the attic. Campbell and Hathaway ran inside, knowing there were still tenants and Young inside as flames began shooting from the attic and down the stairway.

The owner and another resident were evacuated from a second-floor apartment, but Campbell couldn’t find Young.

“Then I realized he was on the third floor,” Campbell said.

The door was locked and no one responded to his knocks, so Campbell kicked in the door and found Young and two residents.

They didn’t know a fire was raging outside.

“Without the smoke alarms, the tenants would have had no idea,” Hathaway said.

Young and one of the residents escaped, and Campbell went back up to the third-floor apartment and got another man, the resident’s brother, out safely.

“As I was bringing the brother down, the windows were popping out,” Campbell said. “But everyone got out safe at the end of the day.”

The fire broke out around 11 a.m. and was determined to be caused by a five gallon empty plastic bucket that was being used to dispose of smoking materials, according to Fire Captain Neil Furtado.

Firefighters and EMTs also were able to rescue a pet pit bull that was located in the bedroom of the third-floor apartment.

The dog, named Stampy, was unconscious when firefighters carried him outside, but paramedics revived it after CPR and giving the animal oxygen.

“If we weren’t there I think it would have been a catastrophe,” Hathaway said.

Both Campbell and Hathaway agreed that the great working relationship between city inspectors and the fire inspectors was also a factor in avoiding what could have been a very bad outcome.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.