Framingham fire sends 6 to hospital

Injuries suffered by 3 residents, 3 fire personnel

Firefighters work to extinguish a three-alarm blaze that broke out in a 72-unit apartment building yesterday afternoon. The cause of the fire had not been determined. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

Thick, inky smoke that flooded the hallways of a Framingham apartment building forced firefighters to rescue occupants from balconies with ladder trucks and sent six people to the hospital during a three-alarm fire yesterday, public safety officials said.

Three residents of Jefferson Village apartments and three firefighters were taken to hospitals, but none of their injuries were considered serious, said Framingham police Lieutenant Paul Shastany said. A fourth firefighter was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and returned to duty.

Shastany said the intense smoke caused a "nightmare" scenario for firefighters by making it tough to find the source of the blaze and slowing efforts to evacuate residents, many of them elderly.

"I have never seen a fire scene in my 32 years where they [firefighters] used up so many air packs," he said. The firefighters who were injured had used up their air."

The police and firefighters who arrived first at the scene off Route 9 just after noon were beaten back by the intense smoke from the fire, which is believed to have started on the second floor of the five-story brick building. Two residents were taken off balconies by ladder trucks because officials feared they would be overcome by smoke if they tried to use the hallways and stairwells, Shastany said.

Officials cut power to all 72 units in the building and said residents would have to find another place to stay for at least a few days.

A woman who identified herself only as Jeanette said police removed her 80-old-mother from her first-floor apartment by stretcher.

"She's really shaken up," the woman said as she loaded her mother's aluminum walker into the back of a sport utility vehicle. "Until I can get her back in, she'll stay with me . . . for a little tea and sympathy."