WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Four firefighters were hospitalized after rushing into a fiery triple-decker home in Worcester to save multiple people who became trapped inside on Thursday.
Crews responding to a reported structure fire on Harrison Street around 7 p.m. found residents yelling from inside the house as heavy smoke and flames started to engulf the building.
“From the window, third floor, we were yelling for help,” resident Diogenito Jorge said. “They put the ladder up; we climbed down.”
Jorge and two other people were rescued from the third floor, while a fourth resident used a fire ladder to escape from the second floor.
“I’m still shaken; covered in soot as you can tell,” Jorge told 7NEWS shortly after the rescue.
The four-alarm blaze left four firefighters suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, according to Worcester Deputy Fire Chief Martin Dyer. They were taken to the hospital for treatment.
“Because of the heavy fire extending really, really rapidly, we pulled firefighters out of the building until we could deem it safe again to return in,” Dyer said.
The American Red Cross is assisting the roughly 16 people who were displaced from the triple-decker.
A preliminary investigation suggests the fire started on the back porch of one of the units.
The cause remains under investigation.
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