Photo above courtesy the Boston Fire Department.
6:45 p.m.: CNN reports that 18 people were injured in the fire. Three firefighters were injured, one seriously, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald told reporters. He said that more than 150 firefighters and between 20 and 30 trucks responded to the incident.
4:25 p.m.: A fire official said one firefighter was seriously injured in today’s fire. One building was affected, with fire extending from the basement through the fire. More than 150 firefighters responded to the scene. Firewalls were preventing lateral extension to connected buildings. Firefighters were fighting the flames from the front and rear of the building. Firefighters were working on extinguishment and conducting an accountability assessment for all personnel.
4 p.m.: WCVB reporters on the scene discussed the problems of wind at the scene, and smoke enveloping the entire area. Nick Martin, a Boston EMS spokesman, told the Boston Globe that two firefighters had been transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, while three others were being evaluated at the scene. Flames extended through the roof of the building.
Video showed firefighters working on a colleague who had been pulled from the building and placed on a gurney.
3:37 p.m.: One firefighter allegedly suffering cardiac arrest. WCVB reports at least two firefighters in the hospital with burns.
3:30 p.m.: The Boston Globe reports two firefighters injured.
3:15 p.m.: The fire has escalated to 9 alarms, according to the Boston Fire Department. One Tweet indicated two firefighters had been removed from the building, one treated and one still unaccounted for, but that has not been formally confirmed.
The Boston Fire Department indicated that the response was at 2:43 pm to 298 Beacon St in the city’s Back Bay section. Fire in the basement of a four-story brick brownstone extended up. The building was evacuated.
ORIGINAL STORY: Various news agencies reported firefighters trapped at a four-story residential fire today in Boston, Massachusetts.
The fire went rapidly to five-alarms. The trapped members, an engine company, issued a Mayday and a RIT was deployed.
More on this story as it develops.
TRAINING RESOURCES
