HAVERHILL — Sunday evening most were settled into their homes as a winter Nor’easter bore down on the Merrimack Valley, but for 75 residents of an apartment building on North Ave that was not an option.
Saturday night a two-alarm fire broke out at an apartment building located at a complex at 440 North Ave., said Nick Gingras, a property superintendent for Northside Condominiums who had returned to the now-empty building to keep the essentials running Sunday.
Luckily, as the snow came down making travel dangerous, most of those displaced were weathering the storm someplace warm, according to Jeff Hall, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Red Cross.
An exception was Gingras, who had returned to the building in part to make sure it remained secure.
Hall said the city put up seven people in a shelter while the rest either found a hotel themselves or stayed with family.
Besides being in charge of the building, Gingras also has been very personally affected by the fire.
“I am superintendent of 11 buildings but I live in this one, my father lives in this one and I have a lot of friends here,” he said.
The Fire Department received a call at 8:49 p.m. according to Haverhill fire Chief Robert O’Brien.
Gingras was home at the time of the fire, and he said he responded to it quickly.
“Hit it with a fire extinguisher, but by that time it had gone up into the ceiling,” he said. “And it started up to the second and third floors.”
He added the Fire Department was there “real quick.”
O’Brien said the department was able to knock the fire down quickly, but because of how the fire had spread the building had to be vacated.
According to O’Brien, the fire began due to faulty equipment in a bathroom ceiling fan on the first floor. It then spread to the second floor damaging essentials like wiring and plumbing.
“I was in my pajamas, everybody else was too,” Gingras said. “It was awful timing.”
According to O’Brien, everyone made it out without injury. He added that the pets also made it out.
O’Brien said the fire department also dealt with an attempt to re-enter the building to get personal belongings during their response. He added this is a common occurrence at the scene of fires.
Gingras said around 29 units were not affected by the fire, but that seven apartments that were would need “extensive work.”
However he will have to receive approval from inspectors before he can get anyone back in the building.
“It’s going to be a slow process, step-by-step, day-by-day,” he said.
Hall said the Red Cross’s role would be to do casework for the displaced tenants, making them aware of financial help, checking up on them regularly and making sure they have some sort of safety net.
Temperatures are expected to warm later this week.
“That is a bit of good news,” said Gingras.
O’Brien said the fire department’s goal is to get people back into about 30 of the units by the end of the week.