Time Was Of The Essence In Willow Street Fire Response

MELROSE, MA — Tuesday's fire on Willow Street was less than two minutes away from igniting an adjacent home, creating many more problems for firefighters working to subdue the stubborn flames.

Melrose Fire Chief Ed Collina said the speed at which Engine 2 was able to get to the home was the difference between dealing with one fire and two.

Responders were able to get there so quickly because of a passerby who banged on the door and alerted the residents of the smoke and flames that originally started on the second-floor rear deck of the two-story home. The man in the top floor and the mother and daughter in the bottom weren't aware until they were notified.

Read: Melrose Firefighters Battle More Than Flames During Coronavirus Era

Firefighters arrived to find the flames shooting out top-floor windows "like a blowtorch," Collina said. They were able to get it under control before it ignited the adjacent home, which ended up heavily charred.

Collina, emphasizing how quick the fire was to spread, said if the same home had been on fire under the same conditions a block or two away, the adjacent home would have caught ablaze.

"You have seconds," Collina said.

Collina also said the Stoneham firefighter who was taken from the street in a stretcher was treated on-scene.

The damage was hundreds of thousands of dollars. If not for fast-acting firefighters, it would have been a lot worse.

"Fire scenes are organized chaos," Collina said. "Everybody knows what they have to do. They train for this."