Pittsfield Firefighters Quickly Knock Down Fires in Two Apartments

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City firefighters were busy Wednesday morning with two fires.

Crews were called to Worthington Street for a structure fire. While there, another call came in about a fire on Fenn Street.

Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Noyes said the call came in shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday about a fire at three-family building on Worthingston Street. Upon arrival, smoke could be seen coming out of a second floor window, and crews found a small fire in a bedroom of the second-floor apartment.

Noyes said they were able to get the fire under control within about 10 minutes.

"We're just waiting for the investigators," he said.

The Red Cross has been called to assist the four people who live in the second floor, which is currently unusable, as well as the eight people in the first-floor apartment, which sustained water damage, Noyes said. The third floor was not affected.

While crews were assessing the Worthington situation, a call came in about a fire on Fenn Street.

Chief Robert Czerwinski, on the scene of that fire, said firefighters responded to 458 Fenn St. for a fire on the stove of the second floor apartment in the multi-family home. By the time they arrived, the occupant had extinguished the fire.

"Everybody's out, everybody's safe," Czerwinski said, adding that the damage was "mostly cosmetic" and the occupants - a man and his daughter - would not be displaced for long, if at all.

Czerwinski and Noyes said the Fire Department was able to successfully manage the back-to-back calls.

"We had to split up some crews," Czerwinski said, adding that two engine companies had still been in service when the second call came.

Noyes said there was a minor delay for a company to get to Fenn Street because it was at Worthington but it didn't have any impact.

"Luckily we were able to knock both fires down quickly," he said.