150 homeless in Lawrence fire
LAWRENCE - A wind-driven fire that started inside a nightclub undergoing renovations leveled most of a city block early yesterday, forcing scores of terrified residents to flee into the frigid cold wearing little more than their pajamas and slippers.
The blaze, which is being investigated as a possible arson, damaged or destroyed 15 buildings on three streets, left at least 150 people homeless, and reduced the closed Millenium nightclub to a smoldering crater.
No one was seriously injured in the 2:30 a.m. fire - the worst in Lawrence since the spectacular Malden Mills inferno of 1995 - but Mayor Michael J. Sullivan warned that the city might not be so lucky next time if the City Council refuses to raise taxes to pay for emergency services. The council is expected to decide on the issue at a meeting tonight. Sullivan has warned the Fire Department to prepare for as many as 20 layoffs and the closure of two of the city's six engine houses if the council votes against his plan to boost property taxes and water bills to cover a budget deficit.
"It's the quick response that really saves lives," said Sullivan, noting that police and fire officials reached the Parker Street fire within minutes, banging on doors of nearby houses to make sure residents escaped. "These firemen have proven over and over again that they could save some of the abutting homes without anyone getting hurt if they have the resources."
Fire safety is a controversial issue in this former mill city of 71,000 people, which in the past has been convulsed by waves of arson, recording more than 200 fires in 1991 alone, many of them set by vandals or for insurance fraud. Yesterday, City Council president Patrick Blanchette said he, too, opposes cutting Fire Department resources, but that he does not want to raise taxes to pay for fire protection. He said the council has urged Sullivan to consider other budget cuts to close a $6 million to $7 million shortfall in the current budget.
The fight in Lawrence is familiar across Massachusetts, where rising costs and voter reluctance to approve tax increases have left an increasing number of departments short-staffed. At a fatal fire in Gloucester last month, for example, the ladder truck sent to rescue the victim had only a single firefighter on board instead of the normal staff of three. In Randolph last year, selectmen suspended the fire chief after he suggested that budget cuts could have been a factor in a fire that killed two half-brothers.
"Honestly, the state has got to step in," said Steve Pelrine of the Reading Fire Department, one of the 13 fire departments that sent crews to Lawrence to help fight yesterday's fire. He said budget cuts in Lawrence and other communities "are not only putting the [firefighters] at risk, you're putting the citizens at risk."
Governor Deval Patrick, who toured the devastated neighborhood, said he has already made proposals to ease the financial pressure on fire departments and other local services, including a proposal to close state tax loopholes, to permit new gambling casinos, and to allow towns and cities to impose new taxes on restaurants and other services. But yesterday, he said the focus should be on helping the fire's victims.
"One step at a time," said Patrick.
Red Cross officials said that at least 50 people displaced by the fire were expected to spend last night in the gymnasium at the South Lawrence East School, while another 100 residents of the 26 apartments that were destroyed are believed to be staying with friends or family. Volunteers at the emergency shelter said the victims included at least one man with schizophrenia whose medications had been destroyed, and a pregnant woman worried that the trauma of the fire could trigger premature labor.
"Pretty much what we're seeing right now is just shock," said Jayan Landry, a volunteer with the nonprofit Trauma Intervention Program of Merrimack Valley, which was providing mental-health counseling.
Robert Hughes, who lived in one of the leveled buildings on Market Street, said he heard two explosions just after 2 a.m. and looked out the window to see fireballs raining down on his three-decker apartment building.
Three doors down, Hughes could see the Millenium nightclub engulfed in flames. Hughes said he barely had time to wake his two younger children and, along with his 13-year-old son, lead them out of the apartment before his home of nine years burned to the ground.
"It all happened so fast. It was terrible," Hughes said as he stood outside the Red Cross shelter, a bag of donated clothes in his hand. "We lost everything."
Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said that ambulance attendants first spotted the fire in the old nightclub around 2:30 a.m., but by the time a fire deputy arrived minutes later, it had spread to two other buildings. In the time it took the deputy to park his vehicle, Takvorian said, flames had reached three more structures. By 7 a.m. yesterday, smoke from the fire could be seen from 10 miles away on Interstate 495.
The city provided a heated bus for those who had no place to go, while others sat in their cars and stared in disbelief. Alberto Binet sat in his brother's van for four hours watching flames as high as 100 feet and praying they would not reach the Springfield Street house he had purchased for his family just four months earlier.
"We were lucky," said Binet, standing on the front porch of his unscathed house yesterday. "The neighbor's garage was on fire, so my house was next." He credited the Fire Department with saving his house.
State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said a task force of city and state officials, along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are investigating whether the fire was set. The Millenium nightclub had been closed for several years before new owners began substantial renovations a few months ago with plans to reopen as a restaurant under a new name, according to city officials. Although the investigation has barely begun, Coan said it's unusual for such a fast-moving fire to start in an empty building.
"The fact that the fire began in a vacant building does raise red flags for us," said Coan. "We are treating this as a suspicious fire."
The owner of the Parker Street property, Geraldo Torres of Methuen, told the Eagle-Tribune that he and his wife had invested $300,000 renovating the nightclub to become an Italian or Mexican-themed restaurant and they were grief-stricken over the fire. He said the couple had not even purchased insurance to cover losses from a fire.
Fire Chief Takvorian said he sees worrisome signs that Lawrence could return to what local people call the "flaming era" of 1991 to 1994, when the city got national attention because of the extraordinary number of arsons. Today, he said, 250 buildings in Lawrence are abandoned and another 700 are going through mortgage foreclosure, putting them at risk for arson.
If he is forced to close two of the city's six engine houses as Sullivan has proposed, Takvorian said it will be harder to respond swiftly to fires citywide and to ensure that all the abandoned buildings remain boarded up to keep arsonists and vandals out.
At tonight's meeting, the council is expected to decide whether to raise water fees and property taxes by an average of $200 per household annually, officials said; if rejected, Sullivan has vowed to close one or two fire stations.
But council president Blanchette suggested that Sullivan is using threats of a cut in fire services to force a tax increase, noting that one station slated for closure is in his district. "We don't have the power to lay people off. That's up to the mayor," Blanchette said. "What we saw [yesterday] morning, the Fire Department cannot be cut in this city."
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. 