A gas odor spreading through a downtown Rockport building turned into a four-alarm fire Sunday morning, displacing at least two families and damaging Rockport House of Pizza, a longtime local business. Rockport Police and Fire Departments responded to 19 Broadway around 10 a.m. after reports of the strong odor, and firefighters soon saw thick black smoke pouring from the building.
According to NBC Boston, no injuries were reported, and National Grid shut off electrical service to the building as crews worked the scene. Firefighters ultimately struck four alarms before extinguishing the blaze at approximately 1 p.m. The cause has not been determined, and it remains under investigation, the station reports.
A press release from John Guilfoil Public Relations, issued on behalf of the Rockport Police and Fire Departments, pinpoints the initial dispatch at approximately 9:58 a.m. following the first reports of a strong gas odor throughout the building, before heavy black smoke became visible. That timeline lines up closely with the seed reporting from the scene and underscores how quickly the situation escalated from an odor complaint to a major structure fire.
Ten Fire Departments Answered the Call
Controlling the blaze required a massive show of regional force. Ten surrounding municipal fire departments provided mutual aid Sunday: Gloucester, Manchester, Essex, Wenham, Hamilton, Middleton, Ipswich, Peabody, Danvers, and Lynn, per the same release from John Guilfoil Public Relations. That kind of multi-town response reflects regional cooperation and mutual aid among area departments.
The cause of the fire is now under joint investigation by the Rockport Fire Department and the Massachusetts State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit, which is attached to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, per the release. Investigators have not yet determined what sparked the blaze.
Broadway's Changing History
The property at 19 Broadway was once home to the Ketchopulos grocery store, according to Vintage Rockport.
A Familiar Test for Rockport's Fire Department
Sunday's blaze is the latest large-scale test for a department built on a call and volunteer firefighting model. Fire Chief Mark Wonson leads the Rockport Fire Department. In January 2024, Rockport police Officer David LoConte, assisted by a passerby, rescued a woman during a major residential fire at 74 Phillips Avenue, while firefighters and mutual-aid partners responded in frigid conditions, the Fall River Reporter noted at the time.
For now, the focus in Rockport remains on the immediate aftermath: two displaced families, a shuttered neighborhood pizza shop, and a downtown building whose future is uncertain while investigators work to determine what caused Sunday's fire.
