Four people are displaced, and two were sent to the hospital, after a fire in the top unit of a building at 119 Randall Street near Chenery Street.
A disabled senior and her daughter were sent to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, one firefighter said.
“[The senior] came out with burned soot all over her face,” said Battalion Six Chief Cremen. “Ambulances transported both of them to the hospital right away”
The senior resident lives in the top unit of the two-story building with her daughter, son, and son-in-law, neighbors said, along with eight cats. Seven of the cats were rescued and taken in by Animal Care and Control. One remained inside around 10:00 a.m.
“We haven’t found him yet, that’s a good thing,” Cremen said.
According to Cremen, the fire started in the front room of the house, possibly the living room, around 8:30 a.m. The elderly woman was helped out of the back entrance of the house by firefighters before being taken to the hospital.
“I’m trying to absorb this,” said Oscar, one of the apartment’s residents.
A neighbor, Jane Verma, said she hadn’t thought anything was amiss until she saw firefighters and went outside to see what was happening.
“I saw flames coming out of the right top window and smoke out of the whole apartment,” she said. “I saw my neighbors, the women, come out covered in soot. It’s freaky to see my neighbors helped out of the building with flames coming of it.”
“Fires are a life-changer,” said another neighbor, David.
