Investigators Seek Public's Help In Probing Cause Of Cambridge Fire
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) – Investigators are asking for the public's help in determining the cause of a nine-alarm fire in Cambridge that displaced nine families.
The Red Cross is helping the dozens of people forced out of their homes by the fire, which officials are not calling suspicious. There were no injuries.
The early-morning blaze Sunday destroyed one building and heavily damaged two others on Allston Street. Officials say the fire started in one building that was vacant.
Buildings in the Cambridgeport neighborhood are very close, which created a major obstacle for firefighters.
"It's a closely built neighborhood, they're wood-frame dwellings, they're basically on top of each other, and you know it's an old neighborhood, it's an old city, and these things happen," said Assistant Fire Chief Gerry Mahoney.
Richard Kennedy's grew up in one of the homes where his mother still lives.
Fortunately she was visiting relatives out of town at the time of the fire.
"If she was in her bedroom she would have died,"Kennedy said. "She wouldn't have been able to get out of the front of the house where she's located."
After the fire was extinguished, residents filled trash bags with what belongings they could salvage.
But the Kennedy family saw a half century of memories disappear forever.
"I don't know what else to say, my family lost everything," Richard Kennedy said.
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