Firefighters rescue residents from multi-alarm blaze at Brighton elderly housing complex

BOSTON (WHDH) - Boston firefighters used a ladder truck to rescue trapped residents as they battled a four-alarm blaze that broke out in a five-story elderly housing complex in Brighton on Thursday morning.

Fire crews responding to a reported structure fire at the 25-unit Patricia White Housing Complex on Washington Street around 8:30 a.m. found heavy smoke showing on arrival.

Photos from the scene showed firefighters using a ladder truck to help occupants escape out of the windows of the burning building.

Two people were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn.

“They couldn’t get down. They were disoriented,” he said. “The smoke consumed the floor so they had to take them out on ground ladders.”

About 15 residents evacuated from the complex, while the remainder were told to shelter-in-place.

A preliminary investigation found that the fire broke out in the bedroom of a second-floor unit.

“The building itself, there are only sprinklers in the common hallways. There are no sprinklers in the units, in the apartments,” he said.

No firefighters were reported injured.

Damage to the building has been estimated at about $500,000.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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