Fire Official Urges Maldonians to Use Detectors After Holmes Street Home Blaze

Malden firefighters responded to a basement fire at a Holmes Street house on Tuesday, according to Deputy Fire Chief Leonard Dunn III.

At 1:30 a.m. Oct. 22, firefighters were called to a multi-family home at 1 Holmes St. for a report of a basement fire, according to Dunn. One of the residents happened to be awake at the time the fire broke out, smelled smoke, went to the cellar door and was met by "a blast of heavy smoke," Dunn said.

"The resident woke up his family and called 911 to report the fire," Dunn said. "Malden firefighters arrived to find a fire in the basement of the multi-family residence, hose lines were stretched and the fire was quickly extinguished, although there is smoke and water damage throughout the basement.

"The families of this building are extremely lucky that the first floor resident happened to be up at 1:30 a.m.m or firefighters may have pulled up to a well-involved house fire with occupants trapped."

While there were at least six people home at the time of the fire, Dunn said no one was injured.

Dunn stressed the importance of having fully functional detectors in place in the home.

"One of the most important items of concern with this and many other fires the Malden Fire Department has responded to the past year has been the lack of working smoke detectors in homes throughout Malden," he said. "The message of having working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors needs to be driven home to every homeowner and resident in this city. It's your first defense against deadly smoke, and your families lives depend on having smoke detectors that are in working order."

Dunn said the Holmes Street home didn't have the right amount of smoke detectors and the ones that were installed didn't work due to not having any batteries. There weren't any detectors found in the basement where the blaze started, according to Dunn.

"We need to remind residents to check to make sure (their) home has smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and that they are working," he said, adding that a good time to change the batteries is when the clocks change.

The cause of the fire was a "candle left unattended by some combustibles," Dunn said. "That's another pet peeve of mine, when people leave candles unattended," he said.

On Thursday, Malden Fire received word that they would be the recipient of a $2,400 Senior SAFE grant, according to Dunn.

The grant will "provide fire and life safety education to seniors in order for them to recognize the dangers of fire, poisoning, falls and other medical emergencies including the fire hazards that smoking-related materials pose," reads the grant application. The grant also puts an emphasis on building "community partnerships and (collaboration) with the purpose of improving fire and life safety in the homes of seniors," the application adds.

Firefighters will be visiting senior housing complexes and centers to provide important fire safety information to residents, according to Dunn.