Early this morning, a fire broke out in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, critically injuring one person and causing damage to three local businesses. The Lowell Fire Department was called to the scene at 191 Central Street around 4:30 a.m., where they encountered heavy smoke billowing from the basement of a thrift store, as reported by Boston 25 News.
Firefighters launched a rescue effort, managing to save a woman trapped on the first floor of the building housing Thriftdit, the thrift store. The rescued individual was in critical condition, and after initial CPR was performed, she was quickly rushed to a nearby hospital, as stated by Lowell's Fire Chief Phillip Charron. The buildings involved, all contained businesses on the ground level with offices above, posed access difficulties that firefighters had to overcome, "It was a very well-involved basement fire. It was a difficult fire to get into," Charron explained to Boston 25 News.
The thrift shop, Thriftdit, bore the brunt of the blaze with significant fire damage, whereas the adjacent H&R Block and Beat Box Glass experienced minor smoke and fire damage. The blaze escalated quickly, prompting the fire department to sound a third alarm due to the "extreme [fire] exposures on both sides," which depleted their manpower resources, Charron told Boston 25 News. The scale of the fire response also led to traffic disruption, with streets from Market Street to Green Street being closed in the vicinity of Central Street.
Details surrounding the cause of the fire remain under investigation, and the identity of the critically injured person has not been disclosed. It is also not immediately clear what the individual was doing inside the building at the time of the fire, according to NBC Boston. The incident has rattled the Lowell community, affecting local businesses and residents alike as the full impact of the fire's destruction is yet to be ascertained.
