Fire tore through a single-family home on Ferdinand Street early Sunday morning, officials said, forcing a narrow escape for a family that feels lucky to be alive.
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“If we could have saved him, we would have saved him,” Deputy Fire Chief Martin Dyer said Monday.
“We had a ladder up to the third floor looking through the windows,” Dyer said. “We had crews trying to make it into the third floor and we were fighting exterior fire and interior fire in two, three-deckers.”
The other victims were identified by authorities as Edna Mae Williams, 85, and her son, Gerald Prince, 61. They were found inside. Adams Sr. was Williams’ son-in-law.
The home had working fire alarms, but not as many as fire officials would have liked to see, Dyer said.
Woodrow Adams, Sr., 71, leaped from the flame-filled three-decker as crews tried to reach the upper floors.
Adams Sr., passed away at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Saturday while being treated for smoke inhalation and for injuries he suffered jumping from the building.
“If we could have saved him, we would have saved him,” Deputy Fire Chief Martin Dyer, department spokesman, said Monday.
The presence of Adams Sr. was not known to firefighters until he jumped, Dyer said.
“We had a ladder up to the third floor looking through the windows,” Dyer said. “We had crews trying to make it into the third floor and we were fighting exterior fire and interior fire in two, three-deckers.”