A basement fire on Wednesday damaged an apartment building and displaced two residents of Greenville’s Acton Court.
Fire crews responded to the three-story, six-apartment building on Wednesday morning after the residents of a first-floor apartment were awoken by their smoke detector, Greenville Fire Chief Charles Buttrick said.
“Their detector went off, and the apartment was filling with smoke,” Buttrick said.
The building was evacuated, and when crews arrived, they found flames breaking through the wall around the back door to the first floor.
“We could see little flames coming through the door. We opened the door, and couldn’t see anything but smoke,” Buttrick said.
Crews discovered the fire had started in the wall in the basement of the building, and had started to break through to the first story. The cause may be electrical, but so far is undetermined, Buttrick said, though the fire is not considered to be suspicious.
Buttrick said crews were able to put out the fire within 15 minutes, and the damage was contained to a small area of the cellar and first floor, but crews remained on scene for another 45 minutes, checking that the fire had not traveled within the walls or floor.
“In the scheme of things, compared to burning the building down, it was small. It’s what we would call a lucky save,” Buttrick said. “If it had caught on, it would have been a bad, bad situation. Smoke detectors save lives, and this is a prime example.”
All six of the apartments are occupied, Buttrick said, but all occupants were able to exit the building and no one was injured.
The two adult residents of the first-floor apartment who initially detected the fire have been displaced and are being assisted with housing by the American Red Cross, according to Buttrick.
Crews were assisted on scene by New Ipswich, Mason and Ashby Fire Departments. The Souhegan Valley Ambulance attended the scene.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.