Property Damage From Fire Doubled Last Year

Two fires that hit the same building in one week have accounted for the bulk of property damage from fire last year.

Amherst Fire Chief Mark Boynton said that the sequential blazes at 8 Manhattan Drive in February resulted in a loss of about $2 million for businesses within the building. This makes up most of the $2,021,000 in total losses from fire that year.

This was the worst incident of the year, according to Boynton, and no cause was found for the two fires. 

Total property damage from fire in 2011 was $1,051,000.

Response calls went down last year to 439, falling from 529 calls the previous year. Boynton said this difference is mainly due to the large amount of emergency calls made during the Snowtober storm and Hurricane Irene in 2011.

The Amherst Fire Department responded to 16 total structure fires last year, with 13 of these being residential. Its firefighters responded to 25 mutual aid calls outside of town and had 11 calls for mutual aid to Amherst.

No fatalities or injuries were reported from fires throughout the year, which is the best statistic of all.