By Patrick Anderson
An Annisquam woman escaped smoke filling her Washington Street building yesterday morning when an alert bystander spotted a fire in the basement and began pounding on the door.
Gloucester firefighters saved the three-story wood-frame house at 740 Washington St., a former store that has been converted into housing, primarily for summer rentals. Crews arrived at the scene from the Central Fire Station at 6:54 a.m., and were able to bring the blaze under control within a few minutes.
No one was injured because of the fire, including the resident who escaped. She was not transported the hospital.
The fire was just starting to spread through the walls and burn a few small holes in the floor when firefighters knocked it down, Gloucester Fire Capt. Tom LoGrande said.
The female resident, who was not identified, was asleep when the person who saw the fire began banging on the door of the house. Smoke had started to fill the upper floors when she evacuated.
"It was fortunate that someone saw (the fire)," LoGrande said. "We avoided a tragedy."
LoGrande said he did not know the identity of the person who banged on the door of the house.
In addition to putting out the fire, firefighters also rescued a cat from the building.
The house, squeezed against Washington Street and perched on the ridge above Lobster Cove, had been a carriage house on the stagecoach line to north Gloucester, before being turned in to a store.
A fire engine and ladder truck from central station were the first pieces of firefighting equipment to arrive on the scene — nine minutes after the fire was reported — because Bay View Fire Station, just up Washington Street from the house, was closed at the time of the fire.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but LoGrande said preliminary reports indicated it started accidentally.
LoGrande placed an initial estimate of the fire damage at $10,000.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3455, or via e-mail at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
