Fire hits waterlogged Ipswich center

A four-alarm blaze raced through an 18th-century wooden building in downtown Ipswich yesterday, gutting six apartments and a bridal shop, a week after torrential flooding forced the closure of four of the town's five bridges.

The fire cast a pall over the seaside town, which had been hoping to put the damage wrought by last month's flooding behind it and inaugurate the start of its summer tourist season. After the fire, town leaders, who had planned a marketing campaign called ``Ipswich Is Open," sounded chastened about the challenges.

``It was only yesterday when I said Ipswich would get though this flood mess and now with this fire it's enough to make you wonder," said Ray Morley , president of the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, who had watched as fire engulfed the building on South Main Street yesterday morning. ``Now, we have an opportunity not only to get through the great flood but to rise through the ashes. And not many communities have an opportunity like that."

The fire began at 11 p.m. Friday, on a commercial strip a short drive from the town firehouse, said Lieutenant Jeffrey French of the Ipswich Fire Department. But as the engines raced to the scene, they had to bypass the shortest route over the Choate Bridge, which is closed, and take the Green Street bridge farther away. Because of the detour, the trip, which would typically take 30 seconds, took about five minutes.

``It actually made things very difficult as far as positioning the apparatus," French said, referring to the fire trucks. If the Choate Bridge, a 242-year-old span that normally carries 20,000 vehicles a day, had been open, ``it could have made a difference in setting up," French said. ``No one can ever say for sure how different the outcome would have been."

Over 12 hours, firefighters from Danvers, Beverly, Newburyport, and other towns battled the blaze, spraying a curtain of water to prevent it from leaping to a building less than four feet away, French said. The fire displaced about a dozen residents and devoured Immie Designs, the bridal shop. No one was injured. French said the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, although it is not thought to be arson.

``The building is a total loss," French said. ``It's going to have be torn down."

Although the Choate Bridge, which had been weakened by the recent flooding,is expected to reopen in 10 days, officials say, the delay in arriving at yesterday's blaze raised concerns about the ability of emergency crews to cross the Ipswich River quickly.

In rush hours last week, the Fire Department has been parking a truck on the opposite side of Choate Bridge to pump water in case of emergency.

But French said it could take 30 minutes to get more trucks through the heavy traffic jams that have been clogging downtown Ipswich.

``It's going to hamper us getting over that side in rush hour traffic," French said. ``No one has any where to get out of your way."

Morley said the town hopes to convert the tragedy of the fire and flooding into positive momentum, to get Ipswich back into working condition.

``We've got the attention of the world, and we're going to get our bridges fixed," he said. ``Now it's up to us to make it work."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.