Apartment Building Fire Kills Seven in Massachusetts
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Monkey Business/Thinkstock(LOWELL, Mass.) — Seven people were killed in an early morning apartment building fire in Lowell, Massachusetts on Thursday.
According to fire officials, all the victims died in third-floor units.
“We now know that there were seven individuals who did not survive that fire — we believe those to be…four adults, three children,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said Thursday.
There were also a number of rescues from upper floors, with some tenants jumping or handing children to safety. Several people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The entire city mourns the losses for those families who have lost victims in this fire,” Lowell Mayor Rodney Elliott said. “It’s a tragic day in the city of Lowell, with the horrific fire.”
An investigation is now underway to determine the cause of the fire.
Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said he heard numerous reports there were no working smoke alarms in the building, but he says that must be verified.
“We need to go through that fire alarm system piece by piece and determine its operability and then try to determine whether it operated at the time of the fire,” he said.
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