QUINCY, Mass. (WHDH) — Firefighters battled a massive fire at the historic 1920s Masonic Temple building in downtown Quincy on Monday afternoon.
Traffic was diverted as smoke poured from the Hancock Street building’s roof. No injuries were reported.
“I came over the flames were going and the fire trucks were arriving. I come around this place all the time. It was kind of shocking,” said Michael Smith, student at Quincy College.
Fire Chief Joseph Barron said the four-alarm fire was partly contained at about 2 p.m. He said firefighters were ordered out of the building shortly after arriving because of heavy smoke.
“A fire of this size is always in danger of collapsing. We moved all of our apparatus and fire fighters out of the collapse zone around the build building,” said Chief Barron.
“I hope that the structure can be saved. You know, we just go around to the historical society and you can march down Hancock Street and point to a number of real important structures to our history. This is one of them. It’s not a happy time,” said Thomas Koch, Mayor of Quincy.
Damage is estimated to be in the millions of dollars and while fire investigators seem to know where this fire started they still don’t know why it started. Fire crews are expected to remain on the scene all night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.