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Officials probe cause of Lynn fire

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 30, 2010 10:42 AM

By Jeff Fish, Globe Correspondent

Authorities are investigating the cause of a three-alarm fire that destroyed a vacant 2½-story apartment building on Summer Street in Lynn on Thursday afternoon.

Fire Chief Dennis Carmody said that although the cause of the fire has yet to be determined, it seems suspicious. “It was a fire in the middle of the day in a vacant building," he said.

The fire was so severe that firefighters had to leave the building, said Carmody.

The fire originated in the first-floor rear of the building and quickly spread up a staircase to the top floor and the roof.

The firefighters were evacuated just before the roof collapsed in the rear. “It was a good call,” said Carmody. “We got the guys out before [the roof] came down.”

Firefighters spent the next hour extinguishing the flames from positions outside the building, he said.

Carmody said that the high temperatures made it harder to fight the blaze. “There was just a lot of fire and the fact that it was a 90-degree day” made it that much more difficult, he said. “We had to rotate the crews out.”

The fire caused minor damage to two other buildings -- one behind the building and one next to it, he said. There were no injuries.