Backfiring Truck Likely Cause Of Huge Brockton Warehouse Fire

BROCKTON (CBS) - A man who escaped a massive fire in Brockton said the inferno started when his pickup truck backfired.

Freddie Montgomery was working on the truck in an old furniture warehouse on North Montello Street around 8:30 p.m. Thursday when he said it suddenly backfired, setting the century-old building on fire.

"The flames come all over me and burnt the hair on my arms and my clothes all on fire," he told WBZ-TV Friday.

Montgomery and a friend, Gene Darling, managed to get out, but the fire quickly jumped to seven alarms.

All homes nearby were evacuated and power was cut to the neighborhood.

It took firefighters about eight hours to put out the fire, but they stopped it from spreading.

"If you look at the exposures around here there were many houses that were threatened and we were able to keep them to a minimum, just that the outside vinyl siding melted and everyone can go home," chief fire investigator Edward Williams told reporters Friday.

The warehouse is a total loss and will have to be demolished.  Darling also lost his camper in the fire.

"I was living in a camper in the backyard. It's gone, nothing left in there. All my medical, everything, pictures, stuff that I can't replace," he told WBZ.

One firefighter was treated for heat-related injuries.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports

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• Brockton