BOSTON (WHDH) - BOSTON (WHDH) – Firefighters battled a massive six-alarm blaze at the Suffolk Downs race track overnight.
Crews rushed to the scene where a fire ignited inside the roof and sent smoke billowing out into the surrounding areas around 10 p.m. Monday night and battled the flames into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The battle was made more difficult by a lack of water supply.
“We had a very difficult time with water. It’s very limited here,” said Boston Fire Commissioner Jack Dempsey.
With the nearest hydrant thousands of feet away, Boston fire called on six nearby fire departments for help then they turned to nearby neighbors for their assistance.
“Next thing I know, they’re calling over to us asking where the nearest fire hydrant is. We direct them to the one right down the street. It’s a couple of houses over from my house. They break down the fence and move it over,” said Jack Brodin, who lives nearby. “It was all just crazy. I’d never seen anything like that before.”
Citing safety concerns, firefighters were ordered off the roof around 11:20 p.m. and departments on the scene switched to using drones to spy on the areas of greatest concern in the building.
“The drone is a great tool. we can get a birds-eye view of the whole building and it actually has thermal imaging. so we can see if the fire is traveling in the roof, underneath the roof, so we can see if it’s spreading further down the building or not,” Dempsey said.
Though the building is open for people to place bets on races being simulcast on TVs, the fire commissioner said it was closed at the time of the fire.
No injuries were reported and investigators are now working to figure out how it started.
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