WATERBURY, Conn. — Crews tackled a heavy fire Thursday morning on Congress Avenue in Waterbury.
Deputy Fire Chief John Perugini said the call reporting the fire came in around 7:30 a.m. When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke. They made it up to the third floor before conditions deteriorated rapidly.
John Brito, a neighbor, said, “It was amazing. It started like a big fire in the back. And it just, it went to the next house and the next house and it didn’t stop. People were yelling. They were like ‘get out, get out the house it’s on fire. Get out the house it’s on fire!’”
Also, they found two people are being helped by the Red Cross and got out safely.
Crews were pulled out of the building and began fighting the fire from the outside. “No fire was able to get onto that. We have lines in place to protect it. And we went defensively,” said Perugini.
Jason Miller, who lives next to the damaged building, “It’s probably about 10 feet away from my porch where you can see the flames raging. So I had no idea when I ran back in there, was it going to catch the apartment or anything like that?”
Perugini said there was a primary search of the building but they were unable to find anyone. Investigators will go back in for another search, but Perugini said it's not believed that anyone was home at the time.
The building was a multi-family residence with businesses on the ground floor.
“That’s pretty sad for the business owners because I mean, it’s already tough as is. We’ve all been in quarantine. Everybody’s struggling as we go,” said Miller. "I’m grateful for my girlfriend waking up and seeing that everything was going on. I’m grateful that nobody got hurt."
The bulk of the fire has since been knocked down and crews are handling hot spots.
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