Couple in their 80s rescued from gust-driven Cambridge fire

Firefighters from Cambridge and surrounding communities worked on Prince Street early yesterday after two third-floor residents were helped from the burning structure. (George Rizer/ Globe Staff)

CAMBRIDGE - As wind-whipped flames devoured his third-story apartment early yesterday, McKinley Hill went to the front window of the Prince Street building, desperate to escape the blaze.

"He was shouting for help," neighbor Julie Davidson said, describing how Hill attracted the attention of Cambridge firefighters who surrounded the burning building as it quickly went to five alarms shortly after 3:30.

Firefighters from Ladder 1 and Rescue 3 hurriedly put up a ladder to the third-floor window and pulled the 80-year-old Hill through it. They also carried his wife, Charlotte, 84, down the stairs to waiting ambulances.

The couple were rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they were being treated yesterday, officials said. Relatives instructed the hospital not to release any information about their conditions, an MGH spokeswoman said.

The building, with multiple units, housed an extended family, neighbors and officials said. No other residents were injured, but a Cambridge firefighter was rescued by his colleagues when a roof collapsed above him inside the third floor of an adjacent condo unit. That unit caught fire when flames driven by 40-mile-per-hour winds jumped the narrow space between the two buildings in the Cambridgeport neighborhood.

In all, three firefighters suffered injuries not considered to be life-threatening as they battled the blaze, which heavily damaged the three-story wood-frame building at 27 Prince St. and spread to condos on either side of it, according to fire officials. Damage was estimated in excess of $1 million.

Fire officials said yesterday that investigators have ruled out arson as the cause of the devastating fire, which drove about 30 people from their homes. A Red Cross spokesman said the charity provided debit cards to the homeless residents, and reported that all of the victims have found housing with relatives or friends.

The fire was first reported at 3:30 a.m. The flames spread from 27 Prince to a six-unit condo next door at 39-41 Prince St. and damaged a third residence, neighbors and officials said.

Bonnie DeRosa, in her second-floor condo at 39 Prince St., was awakened by the smell of smoke and bright light, and at first thought she had overslept.

"It looked like it was sunny. Then I realized, it was light I hadn't seen before, colors I hadn't seen before," said DeRosa, an independent filmmaker. "I could see flames and orange and red light.

"It's terrible. It's terrible. I just keep thinking, 'I'm glad we are alive.' I am glad we made it out."

The narrowness of Prince Street complicated the efforts of fire crews in a part of the city where houses are just an arm's length apart.

Rain trapped the heat and smoke close to the ground, but also extinguished some of the hot embers that blew onto the roof of nearby homes, officials said.

"The smoke was so dense you could hardly see the firefighters," said Frank Pasquarello, a Cambridge police public information officer who was one of more than 150 emergency personnel who responded to the scene near Central Square.

"They were trying to fight the fire pulling hoses in through yards and over rooftops," Pasquarello said, explaining that the street was so narrow only one engine at a time could stand in front of the flaming structures. "It was a very difficult fire."

Crews had the flames under control by about 7:30 a.m.