Car Crashed Into Wareham House, Starts Fire
WAREHAM (CBS) - A fire started in a house in Wareham Friday night after a car crashed into it.
Police say the crash happened around 9:30 p.m. on Oak Street and the fire started after the collision.
Crews first to arrive on scene said there were two people in the truck. The driver, later identified as Richard Fiorentino, 17, of Wareham, was stuck in the truck and firefighters were able to get him out through the rear window of the truck. He was taken to Tobey Hospital.
WBZ-TV's Jim Smith reports.
Fiorentino's two passengers were able to get out of the truck; one of them had to be taken by MedFlight to a Boston hospital.
A man who lives in the house was in the shower when the crash happened. His girlfriend had to break a window for them to get out. They were not injured.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Mark Katic reports.
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"If this was later in the night and people were sleeping, we may have lost a few lives here," said Wareham police chief Richard Stanley.
Authorities say Fiorentino was traveling north on Oak Street and lost control as he approached Minot Avenue.
Gertrude Bazinet lives in the house next door. The truck just missed her house as it ran over some bushes and into the other home.
"I thought it was thunder, but I thought it wasn't raining. But I looked and looked at the corner because this corner is very bad for car accidents," she told WBZ's Jim Smith.
The collision with the house moved the structure seven feet off its foundation. Authorities also believe the gas lines were torn loose from the house and that's what caused the fire.
Neighbors say a different vehicle hit the house 20 years ago.
Fiorentino is charged with drunk driving causing serious injury, operating to endanger, marked lanes violation and speeding. He is expected to be summonsed to Wareham District Court.
