Mount Pleasant Avenue resident Aiden “Treely” Dowd was home watching the Apple TV+ series “Severance” Tuesday afternoon when he heard a loud crackling sound.
The upstairs room he was in has windows facing the house next door.
“I’m watching a TV show and I hear this crackle noise and I’m like, ‘Man, what is that? Is someone like moving a really big pile of leaves?’ So I look out the window and his house is on fire and then I called 911,” Dowd said of what turned out to be a large fire on the outside front right corner of a detached garage in the back of his neighbor’s single-family home at 102 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
The 20-year-old Gloucester High Class of 2023 graduate who had just finished his second year at University of Massachusetts Lowell also managed to get a video and a photo of the flames shooting from the garage.
No injuries were reported for the working fire, which was called into the Fire Department at 3:42 p.m. The fire in quiet residential neighborhood in East Gloucester was quickly extinguished by Gloucester fire crews.
Crews pulled up in minutes and saw smoke showing from the garage, stretched two hose lines and knocked down the bulk of the fire by 3:57 p.m., fire Chief Eric Smith said in a statement. While the garage suffered fire and smoke damage, the main house was not damaged.
The fire chief said the homeowner was not home at the time of the fire. The garage, which sits in the backyard down from the main house, held some classic cars, and firefighters were able to roll one out of the garage after extinguishing the fire. Crews also worked to overhaul the exterior of the wooden garage, ripping parts of the exterior off to check to see if fire had extended into the walls.
Crews from Engines 2, 3, 5 and Ladder 1 as well as Gloucester Fire Rescue truck filled Mt. Pleasant Avenue. Rehab 5 and Building Commissioner Rob Vicari also responded.
The call initially came in as a working fire with flames showing, Smith said. The call came as being from Dowd’s address from which he called in the fire.
“Fortunately in this case it was a detached garage set quite a ways away from all the other adjoining structures and homes,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, the homeowner’s got some pretty nice antique vehicles, one of them was damaged, has some heat damage to the paint there, but the garage is a pretty new building. It should be a pretty easy repair and obviously no one is living in it so no one’s displaced. No pets that we were able to see.”
Smith said it appeared the fire started on the outside of the garage on the right front corner.
“It started from there and kind of got going big enough, long enough that it ate its way through the wall, created some fire damage inside the garage as well, but like I said, no one was home. We are still trying to get in contact with the owner, so the good news is nobody’s hurt, nobody’s going to be displaced from their home tonight, but a really nice garage with really nice antique car took a hit that I’m sure the owner is not going to be too happy about.”
Smith said the cause is under investigation. The fire started in an area of what appeared to be potting soil or mulch and there were also some wood products and automotive items there.
“There was certainly enough fuel, if you will, in the vicinity for something like that to kind of get smoldering and going and then turn into an ever growing fire,” Smith said.
Beauport Ambulance provided support at the scene and Rockport fire crews covered Gloucester stations.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.