LOWELL, MASS. (WHDH) - Residents and neighbors are shaken and shocked after a three-year-old boy was tragically killed Friday morning when a massive fire ripped through an apartment in Lowell.
Around 6:30 a.m., fast-moving flames engulfed the building on Parker Street, trapping the boy in a second-floor bedroom.
Neighbors said they awoke to a nightmarish scene of “glowing orange” light shooting up into the sky.
“Quite shocking,” Allison Lumenello said. “You could almost feel the heat. There was actually stuff was exploding out of the windows.”
Lumenello said the most heart-wrenching moment was watching firefighters frantically trying to save the boy’s life, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
“There were probably three or four firefighters coming out the side door. Three of them were kind of clustered there,” Lumenello said. “The fourth one came running out with him on his shoulder, but the kid was kind of flopped over. It was hard to watch.”
The state fire marshal stressed the importance of working fire alarms following the blaze.
“Very tragic, horrible. I’m very sorry for the family’s loss,” Lumenello said.
It’s not clear if the smoke detectors were working inside the building.
The cause of the fire is not clear.
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