Hundreds Displaced After Chestnut Hill Fire

NEWTON, MA — Some 600 people will be without a home Monday night after a fire broke out on the eighth floor of a Hammond Pond Parkway luxury high rise in Chestnut Hill earlier this morning, causing damage to the buildings' electrical system.

Officials said they were able to contain the fire to the apartment, but there was serious water damage to condo units, especially right under the eighth floor, where the fire broke out.

"We've also got some water in the electrical rooms," Captain Eric Fricke of the Newton Fire Department told Patch Monday afternoon.

Only one man was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and two floors were deemed uninhabitable immediately following the fire. No firefighters were reported injured.

"There's gonna be some water damage in at least the seventh and eighth floors will, at minimum, be uninhabitable for the night," said Fricke earlier in the afternoon before the 6 p.m. announcement that both towers would have to be evacuated for the night.

Many people plan to stay with friends or family, some are using hotel vouchers from the Red Cross, and the Senior Center may be opened to be use as a shelter, according to a city official.

Lisa Amato was in her sixth floor apartment when she heard the sirens and the building alarm, but didn't realize how big of a deal it was until a firefighter at her door told her it was time to evacuate.

"I looked and saw that water [from firefighters spraying the floors above] was all over the floor in front of the unit next to mine," she said sitting in the lobby along with about a hundred other South Tower residents who were evacuated. She left her apartment with her phone in hand - and that was all.

"Nobody's hurt and everybody is safe, that's a good thing." But, she added, she doesn't know where she'll go tonight.

The entire South Tower was evacuated just before 1 p.m., and remained evacuated.

As firefighters evacuated the buildings which house more than 420 units and upwards of 600 people, they put out the flames of the fire that appears to have started in a kitchen in a unit that was under renovation, according to officials.

At 2 p.m Mayor Ruthanne Fuller came to talk with residents affected by the fire.

"I came by to make sure everything goes smoothly as we work hard to make sure everyone as a warm and dry place to spend the night," Fuller told Patch.

Throughout the afternoon, evacuees of the South Tower congregated in the lobby, as officials passed out bottles of water and shouted out information. Immediately following the evacuation, people sat in chairs and on the baseboard heater in the lobby, mostly calm and quiet chatting with neighbors or looking at their cell phones.

One 92-year-old resident who lives on one of the top floors said she was in her kitchen baking bread when she saw dark smoke outside her window, the building alarm followed. She turned off her oven and headed down to the lobby.

She and a building trustee praised the calm work of the building staff and how calm residents had been.

"People were really great about coming down," said Dorrie Wentrab a trustee of the building. "They're doing what they can and being patient and the staff has been really great."

By 3 p.m. officials were escorting residents back up by stairs, floor by floor, to get medicine, but the lobby's acoustics made it difficult for residents to hear them.

"This is a serious emergency,"shouted one building official urging residents to continue to have patience. A number of the residents of the tower use walkers or have difficulty getting up stairs.

One college student who lives on the fourth floor with his grandmother, said he came home after class to news of the fire.

Aba Achildiyev described the scene as "chaotic," as he waited to go up to grab medication for him and his grandmother.

"I'm afraid to go up there," he said. "What am I going to see?"

Achildiyev said he and his grandmother have family who live in Newton Centre and if they have to leave for the night they'll go there.

Residents from the North Tower, who were briefly evacuated before being allowed back into their homes just after 1 p.m., came to check out what was happening in the lobby of the South Tower, where the smell of smoke was still in the air and firefighters were plentiful. A couple said they offered their apartments to their neighbors to use.

The fire came just after a recent redecoration that wasn't popular with some, said several residents citing a chance for the building to redecorate as another silver lining.

Residents also praised the Newton first responders for their quick work and helpfulness.

"Newton Fire Department? Superb," said Gail Maker who lives on the ninth floor of the South Tower with her Italian Grayhound, Chance. "Police, fire, emergency responders they are all so friendly, so professional: really they are fabulous."

The Towers of Chestnut Hill, which were built in the late 70s, are tucked into an area behind the Chestnut Hill Mall. Residents say the last time there was a fire here was about eight years ago when someone tossed a cigarette down the trash chute.

The Towers were originally an apartment complex called The Chestnut Hill Gardens and can accommodate more than 600 residents, although it's unclear how many live in the South Tower today. The Towers were converted to condominiums and renamed in 1981.

Red Cross set up a table in the lobby just after 3 p.m.

According to officials, the sprinkler system was activated and visibility was difficult early on in the South Tower at the Towers of Chestnut Hill, which helped prompt the call for a second alarm and activated crews from Newton and neighboring Brookline.

The view of where the fire broke out in #newton pic.twitter.com/hWxerqNb7E
— Jenna Fisher (@ReporterJenna) April 22, 2019

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).