Looking beyond the blackened, boarded storefronts left by a four-alarm fire in Hyde Park early Saturday, city officials yesterday announced plans to meet with owners of eight burned-out businesses to help them assess damage and plan to reopen.
City fire investigators were still searching for the cause of the fire yesterday, and had not ruled out the possibility that it was set, a fire department spokesman said.
Investigators also continued to probe the source of another fire that killed two people in South Boston on New Year's Eve. Yesterday, former residents of the Emerson Street condominium complex were allowed back in the towering brick structure for the first time since they fled the smoky blaze with little more than the clothes they were wearing.
The two fires left 50 people homeless, 30 in South Boston and 20 in Hyde Park's Logan Square section, and caused a combined estimated $6.5 million in damages, $5 million in South Boston and $1.5 million in Hyde Park, officials said. The Hyde Park fire destroyed or damaged eight businesses in a landmark, three-story building on River Street, across from the Hyde Park municipal building.
Joanne Massaro, acting director of the city's Department of Neighborhood Development, said leaders of the city's business development office began reaching out to affected merchants hours after the fire. They plan to meet with the merchants today.
"They hold the hands of the business owners, to see what they need and walk them through it," Massaro said. "The first thing is to let them know they're not alone."
Those who lost their homes in South Boston, some of whom had lived at the former Hotel Eaton for decades, said they battled strong emotions as they waited on the sidewalk for the chance to go inside and salvage their belongings. They emerged with items stuffed in garbage bags and recycling bins: framed photographs; a fur coat; a ceramic Christmas tree; an unscathed copy of "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
"These are things, stuff you collect, but your memories are in your heart," said Mary Sullivan, a resident of the building since 1980, who clutched a flashlight as she stood behind yellow police tape.
Residents said they are anxious to learn the cause of the seven-alarm fire, which began in the kitchen of a first-floor unit about 7:30 p.m., fire officials have said. One occupant of the unit, Peter Clancy, suffered a fatal heart attack as firefighters led him outside. A woman identified by neighbors as Clancy's wife, Arvette, was later found dead in the apartment. The couple left three teenage children, neighbors have said.
Neighbors of the Clancys said their condominium had been repeatedly targeted by vandals in recent years. A fire department spokesman, Steve MacDonald, said investigators have interviewed neighbors and combed through the ruins of the building, but the cause remains undetermined, in part because of the size of the building and degree of damage. Residents who entered the building yesterday, escorted by police officers and safety regulators from the city's Inspectional Services Department, described a shocking scene of charred wood, scattered glass, and ice-sheathed clothes and mattresses.
Longtime resident Tom Keenan said he was happy just to get his false teeth back - frozen in the glass where he had left them before he fled the fire "with my slippers, my lounging pajamas, and the Bacardi and Coke I was drinking," he said.
"Tom got his choppers back!" a neighbor crowed jubilantly at the news of his success.
Sullivan described close relationships in the building. "It was like a dorm," she said, laughing - but she wept at the memory of her beloved black cat, Freddy Krueger, who died in the fire, which broke out while she was at work.
Several residents said they are determined to rebuild their homes and return to Emerson Street, no matter how long it takes.
"To know that I'm coming back where I belong is the most important thing to me," said Michael Burggren, a resident for 10 years.
He said he calls one of his former neighbors every morning at 8 a.m.
"We're still neighbors," he said.
