A three-alarm fire tore through a wood-framed home on Metropolitan Avenue in Hyde Park before 4 a.m. Sunday, sending three adults and their dog fleeing to safety while firefighters battled flames that had already engulfed the front of the house by the time crews arrived. The family's cat remained missing as of just after 5 a.m., even as fire crews lingered at the scene dousing hot spots.
Boston Fire Department companies were dispatched around 3:43 a.m. to 596 Metropolitan Ave, where they found the front of the structure fully engulfed, according to The Dorchester Post. The home is a wood-framed, two-and-a-half-story building, and property records reviewed by Redfin show it was built in 1920 and spans roughly 3,456 square feet — the kind of older, wood-framed multi-family construction that can allow fire to spread rapidly through interior voids. The Boston Herald reports there were no reported injuries at the scene.
Live Wires Complicated the Response
Live overhead power lines were arcing across the front of the home during the fire, a hazard serious enough that incident commanders requested an expedited utility company response before firefighters could safely work near the facade, the same Dorchester Post account notes. Utility crews responded to cut power to the structure, allowing ground operations to continue. Detail companies remained on scene past 5:01 a.m. extinguishing lingering hot spots, per the outlet's reporting.
While all three adult residents and their dog escaped before firefighters arrived, emergency crews continued searching the heavily damaged home for the family's cat while dousing embers, according to Boston 25 News. As of 5:01 a.m. Sunday, the cat was still unaccounted for. The Boston Fire Department has not disclosed what caused the fire.
Red Cross Steps In for Displaced Family
The American Red Cross of Massachusetts responded to help the three displaced residents and their dog. The organization deploys 24-hour Disaster Action Teams that coordinate directly with fire incident commanders to provide temporary lodging, emergency funds for food and clothing, and mental health counseling to families who lose their homes, according to the American Red Cross.
A Neighborhood With a Busy Year for Fire Crews
Sunday's blaze adds to a string of major fire responses in Hyde Park this year. In March, Hoodline reported on a roof fire that swarmed West Street, and in July, crews responded to a blaze that destroyed an outdoor storage shed at Match Community Day charter public school. Statewide, residential structure fires represent the single largest share of building fires, and wood-framed multi-family dwellings carry heightened risk of rapid flame extension, according to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' annual report published by Mass.gov.
The pattern extends beyond Hyde Park's borders. A three-alarm fire destroyed a vacant multi-family building on Savin Hill Avenue in neighboring Dorchester in late July, as reported by the Dorchester Reporter. Citywide, the Boston Fire Department fields roughly 150 calls a day across 34 stations serving a population of more than 680,000 spread over 48 square miles, with residential structure fires accounting for the largest share of structural property loss, according to data on the city's Analyze Boston portal.
Metropolitan Avenue itself had already drawn heavy public-safety attention just two days earlier, when Boston police deployed a drone to locate an armed suspect fleeing near the intersection of Washington Street and Metropolitan Avenue, close to the Hyde Park-Roslindale border. No cause has yet been released for Sunday's fire, and the family's cat had not been located as crews wrapped up overhaul work at the scene.
