Fire tears through Pearl St. apartments

(Photos by David Lane)

MANCHESTER – Dozens of residents fled a vast apartment house on Pearl Street last night, driven by a four-alarm fire that took firefighters nearly four hours to get under control.

About 100 people lived in the 38-unit, L-shaped apartment building, which fronts both Chestnut and Pearl streets. Two nearby buildings were evacuated for precautionary reasons.

Two residents were treated for injuries, one for smoke inhalation and one for chest pains, Fire Chief James Burkush said.

District Fire Chief Vinnie Toland said the fire was caused by a coffee pot left on the stove at 96 Pearl St., in a first-floor apartment.

►A gallery of Union Leader photographer David Lane's images
►Fire victims still in shock (1)
►Location of Pearl Street fire

As firefighters worked on the building, displaced residents stood arm in arm. Many fought tears and wondered what was left of their belongings, be they cats, wads of cash or family keepsakes.

"You watch your whole life go up in flames. Everything you worked hard for all your life to get, and it's gone," said Gary Baker. His wife, Michelle, stood on a slab of snow and ice in borrowed slippers, after giving her sneakers to her daughter.

The daughter, Erica, clutched the only belonging the family saved - a photo album.

The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter last night at St. Joseph Regional Junior High School. The organization put out a call for cash donations.

The fire hit 88 Pearl St. at 7:49 p.m. Residents said they heard alarms sounding and went outside the rear to see a wall of flames shooting up all three floors along the center of the building.

"I looked out the back; the whole back of the building was in flames. I turned around and went out the front. If you went out the back, you would have been a marshmallow," said William Jasmin, who lives in a second-floor apartment.

He said he ran in and out of hallway doors, alerting residents. Alarms were going off, but few were moving, thinking it was just a false alarm, he said. Jasmin said he lost two cats in the fire; a neighbor found another of his cats and caged it.

The building takes up the western half of the northern side of a block of Pearl Street between Chestnut and Pine streets. It is a three-story, wood-frame structure. Dormers jut out of the mansard roof. Each entry door has its own address, and each entrance leads to one apartment per floor.

The owner is KBS Manchester LLC, according to a Web site that lists city properties.

Built in 1910, the structure is valued at $2.36 million for tax purposes, according to the Web site.

Fire Chief Burkush estimated damage to the main structure at $500,000.

Burkush said the building had an automatic alarm, but no sprinklers.

Burkush said it was a difficult fire to fight due to the construction of the building, which included crawl spaces. Torrential rain did not hamper firefighters' efforts, but gusty wind did add to the challenge of dousing the blaze, Burkush said.

The blaze drew mutual aid from Hooksett, Goffstown, Merrimack and Londonderry.

Firefighters stretched ladders from several trucks over the building. Several times, flames snaked along the roof, flared up, then died down again. At 10:30, a thunderstorm rolled through, forcing firefighters to lower the aerial trucks briefly.

Fire never broke through and consumed the exterior of the building. But during the fight, officials described interior flames as heavy.

As a precaution, firefighters were ordered out of the building at 9:20 p.m., but were back inside by 10 p.m.

The fire was determined under control at 11:19 p.m.

Police closed off many streets, forcing detours and slow-downs on city streets. Last night's warm weather accommodated hundreds of bystanders, who gathered in groups to look at the fire and snap photos and videos with cell phones.

Joanne Degrandmason, 56, said she believes the fire started in her apartment on the first floor of 106 Pearl St. She said she saw flames in the kitchen engulfing her oven and microwave.

"The microwave melted like butter," she said. Degrandmason escaped unhurt. She has lived in the building for the past nine months, she said. She said she does not know how the fire started.

"I just walked out and left everything behind," she said.

Degrandmason cried on a friend's shoulder as firefighters continued to douse flames on the building's roof. She asked the friend, Lenny Goodman, to pray for her.

"I'm going to pray for you, sweetie," Goodman said. "Everything's going to be all right."

Jeremey Heath consoled his girlfriend as they wondered about their three cats. The two had left their 7-month-old baby at her mother's house and were returning home when they saw the fire.

It appears the fire started above their second-floor apartment, they said. Like most residents interviewed, Heath said he had no renters' insurance.

Luis Martinez, who lives in 92 Pearl St., said he looked out the back, saw flames and escaped with his wife and daughter. People were screaming "get out," and he had to leave everything behind, including the large amount of cash he keeps at home.

He wondered where he would stay; much of his family lives in other apartments in the building.

"This is the first time something like this ever happened to me," he said.

__

To help the fire victims, cash donations can be made to the Union Leader Charitable Fund.