Two people were seriously injured and rushed to the hospital after a 5-alarm fire tore through a multi-family home and several neighboring properties on Atlantic Avenue in Salisbury Beach on Friday evening. Before firefighters could even reach the scene, bystanders had already rushed in to pull a trapped resident from the burning building.
According to Boston 25 News, Salisbury Fire Department crews under Fire Chief Scott Carrigan were first dispatched to 24 Atlantic Avenue around 6:55 p.m., arriving to heavy black smoke and active fire that quickly forced the alarm level higher. Local resident Jamie Ketchen told WHDH 7News he saw smoke pouring from the roof and watched crews cutting roof holes and breaking windows as they battled the blaze. Per WHDH, the fire started at approximately 7:20 p.m. and was described by at least one witness as sounding like an apparent explosion. Crews arriving on scene found the home already engulfed in flames, and the fire quickly spread to several other buildings nearby.
Neighbors Acted Before Crews Arrived
The most striking detail to emerge from the chaos was the role played by ordinary residents. Per Live Boston News, local bystanders took immediate action to rescue a trapped occupant from the burning residence before first responders arrived at 24 Atlantic Avenue. That early intervention came as the fire rapidly overtook the structure, and it likely made a critical difference in the outcome for at least one person inside.
The fire was ultimately put out after approximately two hours, according to WHDH. Two individuals were seriously injured and transported to a local hospital, the Sunday Guardian reports, though their current conditions have not been publicly disclosed. The blaze severely damaged two residential structures, moderately damaged two others, and exposed or impacted a total of five properties in the tight-knit Atlantic Avenue neighborhood, per the same outlet.
Regional Mutual Aid Response
What started as a single-alarm call quickly ballooned into one of the larger coordinated firefighting efforts the region has seen recently. The blaze escalated to a 5th-alarm fire, drawing mutual aid apparatus and firefighters from over 15 surrounding municipalities across northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, including Hampton and Newburyport, according to Times Now News.
That kind of cross-border cooperation is not improvised on the fly. Salisbury's multi-alarm fire response is coordinated through the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association network, known as District 5, which uses standardized 10-alarm run cards to automatically summon apparatus from neighboring Rockingham County, New Hampshire, according to the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association. That pre-arranged system is what allowed departments from both states to converge on Atlantic Avenue within a matter of hours.
Investigation Underway, Cause Still Unclear
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, WHDH reports. Under Massachusetts General Law chapter 148, multi-alarm residential fires undergo origin-and-cause investigations led jointly by local fire chiefs, police departments, and the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal's Office. That process is expected to determine how the fire started and why it spread so aggressively across multiple properties in such a short time.
Town assessor records identify 24 Atlantic Avenue as a three-story, 5,184-square-foot wood-frame multi-family residence built in 1988 on a lot of just 4,791 square feet, according to municipal filings with the Town of Salisbury Assessor. That density is not unusual for the neighborhood. Historic planning surveys note that Salisbury Beach features dense residential development with multi-family wooden structures packed onto quarter-acre or smaller lots, a layout that significantly increases the risk of rapid flame spread between adjacent homes, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
Friday's fire is not the first time Salisbury Beach has faced this kind of destruction. The district previously suffered a 9-alarm fire in January 2022 along Central Avenue that destroyed five coastal buildings, according to a report from Mass.gov, underscoring the area's recurring vulnerability to major structural fires. For now, the exact number of residents displaced from the five affected properties on Atlantic Avenue has not been confirmed, and officials have not released further details on the condition of the two hospitalized victims.
