A nine-alarm fire ravaged the Beacon Towers apartment building at Massachusetts Avenue and Beacon Street Wednesday afternoon, causing severe damage and prompting the rescue of several tenants.
The building, located close to Boston University’s Danielsen Hall residence at 512 Beacon St., caught fire between 2 and 3 p.m., though the Boston Fire Department was not immediately able to determine the cause.
At least 12 fire trucks were still on the scene at about 3:30 p.m., several with ladders extended to upper floors where windows had been blown out. The intersection was cordoned off with caution tape. Beacon Street was blocked to traffic in the area, and Boston Police officers also closed the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, across the street from the building.
One officer at the scene said it could take BFD as long as two days to determine the cause of the fire.
At least 200 people, including residents of the building, emergency personnel, members of the media and passers by, were gathered on the sidewalk as firefighters continued to secure the area and work on upper floors via ladders.
Twenty-year-old Berklee College of Music junior Arielle Guitar, who lives in the building with one roommate, said she was in the neighborhood when she got a phone call about the fire.
“My apartment’s on fire, I don’t know what else to say,” she said. “It’s a scary thing. We don’t know how bad it is. There were some windows blown out. We don’t know how long we’ll be out of our apartment.”
Four residents and two fire fighters were taken from the scene in an ambulance, a BFD spokesman said. Boston Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan confirmed the transportation of two residents &- one in serious condition, the second with minor injuries and two fire fighters.
“We just want to make sure everyone’s OK,” Guitar said. “I think there were some pets inside still, which is really sad.”
The BFD spokesman said a nine-alarm fire is the highest on the scale.
“It’s the largest fire we’ve had in Boston in about three or four years,” he said. “It requires 21 engines, a lot of support and about at least 150 fire fighters.”
BFD reportedly responded quickly to the emergency, but Guitar said she was more concerned with the state of the building. At this point the damage is estimated at $3.5 million, BFD spokesman said.
“I mean, it doesn’t really matter to me. There’s still damage,” she said of the response. “Nobody can stay here. But I’m glad they got it taken care of.”
Shortly after the blaze began, heavy smoke reportedly wafted west and north of the building, onto BU’s campus and out over the river. The smell of smoke and gasoline lingered down Beacon Street after the flames subsided.
Rebecca Rosevalt, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and a resident of South Campus, said she sat in front of Danielsen watching the activity for at least an hour.
“I saw all these trucks and heard all the helicopters and whatnot, so I decided to come down and see what was going on,” she said. “I got here after the smoke happened, but there were a lot more trucks and there were a couple of ambulances around. There was a little smoke coming out but I think they put the fire out by the time I got here. It was pretty quiet, just a lot of activity.”
The temperature in Boston was near 90 at the time of the blaze, and a National Weather Service fire weather “red flag” warning was in effect for much of the state and surrounding areas.
The fire came just two days after an apparently natural fire engulfed the Fens park, while down the street at BU’s Metcalf Center for Science &’ Engineering, a transformer explosion caused an electrical fire on the roof. No injuries were reported in those incidents, both of which occurred Monday afternoon.
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