LOWELL, Mass. — One person was critically injured in a fire that damaged three businesses in a busy section of Lowell on Monday morning, officials said.
Firefighters responding to an alarm activation at Central Street Chiropractic at 191 Central Street around 4:30 a.m. found heavy smoke pouring from the neighboring Thriftdit store, according to Lowell Fire Chief Phillip Charron.
“It was a very well-involved basement fire. It was a difficult fire to get into,” Charron said. “It took us a little while to get control of it at the basement level so we could enter on the third floor.”
Charron said a woman was rescued from the first floor and CPR was performed before she was rushed to an area hospital, where she remains in critical condition. Her name hasn’t been released.
The buildings are all commercial at the bottom with offices on top, according to Charron.
“A lot of these units, their only access to the basement, if you enter from the front you have to go all the way to the back and access it,” Charron explained. “So, what we ended up having to do, is force all the doors in the rear to get into those units and get down into the back.”
Thriftdit suffered heavy fire damage, while H&R Block and Beat Box Glass suffered minor smoke and fire damage.
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“The exposures are extreme on both sides,” Charron said. “We ran out of manpower pretty fast so we went a third alarm.”
Market Street to Green Street was shut down in the area of Central Street due to the large emergency response.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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