LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - Residents say they ran through a multi-family building in Lawrence early Saturday morning to warn others of a growing fire that left the structure scorched and more than a dozen people displaced.
Laurie Farinella, who lives on the first floor of the 7-unit building on Osgood Street, said she saw someone outside around 5 a.m. trying to bang on the exterior door and she jumped up and ran through the building, banging on doors with a baseball bat to alert other tenants to the fire.
“I saw two men banging on the door saying there was a fire on the other side of the house,” she said. “So I just got my baseball bat and started banging on the doors of the people upstairs because there’s kids up there.”
Farinella added that residents of the building worked together to get everyone outside to safety.
Eder Boindujour, who lives in the building, said Farinella woke him up.
“I was sleeping when the fire started, and there was a lady living on the first floor and knocked on every door so everybody got out,” he said. “She’s a lifesaver, she’s saving everybody.”
Farinella said she was only trying to help.
“I don’t think I did anything anybody else wouldn’t do,” Farinella said. “I just happened to be awake, and I’m loud, so it came in handy.”
There were no reported injuries and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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