2 hurt after fire breaks out on 20th floor of Boston high-rise
BOSTON -- A fire at a high-rise in Boston closed down the ramps to I-93 in both directions, along with multiple streets in the area Friday. Drivers were asked to avoid Congress Street around 11 a.m. as firefighters worked to put out a fire on the 20th floor of a building.
The 43-story building at One Congress is under construction, forcing firefighters to enter from the third floor. About 300-400 workers were in the building when the fire broke out, according to Deputy Chief James Green.
All construction workers are accounted for. Two workers did need to be evaluated by EMS but they do not have serious injuries.
Green also said there was a significant amount of smoke still trapped in the building after the fire was put out, so firefighters needed to break windows.
"It smelt like burnt paper at first and now it smells like a lot of different materials being mixed around," said construction worker Annisha Simpson.
Kathryn Fanelli could see the fire from her apartment.
"I mean it was very scary to see glass pouring out. The water was still coming through hours later," Fanelli said.
She described the series of emergencies on her block in recent months as "kind of a hot bed of disasters."
The site of the fire is near the Government Center Parking Garage, where workers discovered a severely deteriorated garage support column on Thursday. The issue has disrupted Green and Orange line service in the area.
"Today has actually been a crazy day because I take the T into work, so I ran into the inconvenience of that about to collapse," said Simpson.
A collapse at the Government Center Parking Garage back in March killed 51-year-old demolition worker Peter Monsini and disrupted service for days. More than a week after the collapse, engineers said it was safe for service to resume.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.