On June 6, 1997 at 6:10 A.M. Kenneth Rice, a worker at the Standard
Box Company at 28 Gerrish Avenue, spotted flames shooting from the
wax machine, a machine designed to heat up automatically. Rice
immediately called 911. When firefighters arrived, Rice accompanied
them into the building to show them the location of the fire, which
then was only a small blaze.In a matter of minutes the fire changed
course and intensified and Rice had to climb out of the building down
a ladder. Two firefighters, Lieutenant Michael Connors and Albert
Peters brought hoses to the fourth floor in an attempt to extinguish
the blaze, but when the smoke caused complete blackout conditions
inside the building, they attempted to follow their hose lines back
to safety. The hoses were wrapped around machinery, confusing their
efforts to follow the lines back to safety and their air supply tanks
on their backs were rapidly dwindling. When the two firefighters saw
a conveyor shaft that dropped approximately fifteen feet to the floor
below where there was fresh air and no sign of fire, they decided to
jump to safety. Although the plunge down the shaft saved their lives,
both men were injured and had to be transported to the Massachusett
General Hospital in Boston. Connors was suffering from a compression
fracture to his vertebrae and Peters suffered multiple traumas as a
result of the fall. He was treated and released.
of the windows were boarded up which allowed heat in the building to
intensify. The fire continued to worsen and the building was in
danger of collapse. At this point, all equipment was moved away from
the building, forcing firefighters to shut down lines in order to
relocate the equipment. About 60 minutes later, the roof and walls
gave way, crashing into nearby Boston Edison lines. Firefighters
continued to battle the blaze, keeping watch for flying embers which
landed as far away as Bellingham Square. At 9:38 A.M. a seventh alarm
was sounded and firefighters began to call for more help to get
additional water on the fire. The eighth alarm was sounded at 9:41
A.M. and reserve forces were called in to make sure the fire embers
did not ignite surrounding buildings.
The fire was not completely extinguished until 3:45 P.M. on Sunday,
two days later. The damage was estimated at $8 million with
additional damage to the Burstein Recycling office building which
abuts the building and smoke damage to the Janus Welding Corporation.
A number of Firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and other
injuries at the scene. Firefighter Edward Bermundez suffered severe
carbon monoxide poisoning and was placed in a hyperbaric chamber at
Massachusetts General Hospital.
