BELMONT — A six-alarm fire described as among
the largest in the town’s recent history
completely leveled six businesses in a plaza at
223 Daniel Webster Highway (Route 3/11) on
Tuesday. An estimated 125 firefighters from as far
away as Concord halted its progress just before it
extended to the adjacent Major Brands Plaza.
Although nobody was seriously injured as a
result of the massive and fast-moving blaze, it
did destroy an antique consignment shop, a
stained-glass lighting store, a gym, a nail salon
and a recently opened book and magazine store —
where it is believed to have originated.
"It went across the attic and there was no
stopping it," said Belmont Fire Chief Rick Siegel,
with icicles hanging from his mustache.
Siegel led an army of firefighters in frigid
temperatures to douse a blaze that was so severe
it required help from nearly every fire department
in the Lakes Region and more from the Concord
area.
Fire units originally were summoned to the fire
at 7:04 p.m. Tuesday and it had not been formally
declared under control as of mid-morning today.
The blaze took place in a large commercial
building directly between the Broadway North Dance
Studio and the Major Brands Plaza.
A tenant in the building said its owner — a
Massachusetts man named Mark Young — had been
informed of the fire.
Belmont Police Corporal William Wright, the
first on the scene, said he arrived to find heavy
smoke billowing out of the roof area of "Read All
About It," a book, magazine and comic book store
located at the northernmost portion of the plaza.
Wright said authorities received a call from
people attending a dance class at Broadway North.
When the officer responded he immediately
requested that people attending the classes leave
the area so that emergency personnel could attend
to the blaze which would end up requiring the road
to be closed for several hours.
Siegel said firefighters arrived to see only
smoke coming from the building, but quickly
learned that the fire was spreading through an
attic space that was covered by the building’s
metal roof.
Crews began attacking the fire by smashing
windows and sawing holes in the roof of the book
shop from ladder trucks. However, they had barely
broken into the building when the fire erupted to
a level where it could only be attacked from the
exterior.
The fire originally was called out as a
three-alarm assignment, but was elevated to a
four-alarm blaze within 20 minutes of the first
units arriving. Weather conditions and the
severity of the fire eventually brought it to a
fifth alarm after approximately an hour.
The chief said he called for a sixth alarm to
get equipment from outlying areas moving to the
Belmont station, in case they were needed.
Units from Barnstead, Belmont, Bristol,
Gilford, Gilmanton, Franklin, Tilton-Northfield,
Sanbornton, Winnisquam and Concord were among
those who responded to the scene. Other units from
all over the state were called in for station
coverage.
Local Red Cross and Salvation Army officials
and McDonald’s were on the scene, providing hot
drinks and food for the firefighters.
Police closed down Daniel Webster Highway
between the Belknap Mall and Mosquito Bridge as
dozens of fire trucks lined the street.
Firefighters ran large, four-inch lines down the
highway from both directions, drawing water
directly from Lake Winnisquam and from hydrants at
the mall.
The chief said he quickly realized he needed
more equipment and personnel when he saw the rapid
progress of the fire which was spreading towards
units to the south.
As firefighters doused a portion of the
bookstore’s roof that was melting and collapsing,
the tops of the adjacent businesses could be seen
smoking and catching fire.
Eventually the entire building was fully
involved with fire as huge flames and plumes of
smoke billowed out in all directions.
Firefighters worked in teams and continuously
moved units and hose southward as the fire spread.
At one point crews had three separate ladder
trucks hitting the fire from above as others
circled from the sides and back.
The fire moved from the bookstore to completely
engulf Country Tyme Antiques and Collectibles,
Studio Lighting (a Tiffany Light Factory Outlet),
the Eggcellent Restaurant, Galaxy Gym and Nails
2000.
Louis and Patricia Guevin, owners of the
antique consignment shop, could only watch as the
inferno ripped through their store, destroying
items they said were owned by some 70 dealers and
could never be replaced.
The fire was threatening to jump to the nearby
Major Brand Plaza when firefighters finally caught
up with it and prevented it from taking down that
complex and its various businesses.
The Major Brands Plaza was separated from the
burning building by approximately 15 feet. The
fire was so close to jumping to the next plaza
that it completely melted the siding off it.
The burning building’s southernmost wall sagged
over an ice-covered Cadillac that was parked
between the buildings.
"That was a real fight for a few minutes," said
Siegel.
The owner of Vacman & Bobbin — the store
closest to the fire in the Major Brands Plaza —
worried that the fire would put them out of
business.
"Everything we have is in that store," said
Caroline Anstey.
Anstey said she and her family had just
returned from a trip to visit a college in North
Carolina when they came over the hill to see
flames.
An owner of the vacuum cleaner and sewing
machine dealership actually ran into the store and
grabbed his cash register and some papers before
authorities asked him not to go back in.
Anstey said she was impressed by the ability of
the firefighters to battle through the conditions
and prevent the fire from spreading.
"I can’t say enough about the job these guys
did ... if we had winds like we had the other
night, we might have lost everything," she
explained.
Mike Baron, owner of the plaza, also was on the
scene as the fire approached his building before
it was halted.
One fire official said that the blaze was the
largest the town has experienced since the Belmont
Mill caught fire in the early 1990s.
Siegel said he was pleased that there were no
serious injuries reported as a result of the fire.
A Winnisquam firefighter was taken to Lakes Region
General Hospital in Laconia where he was treated
and released. A spectator slipped on the ice and
broke her arm; she, too, was taken to LRGH.
The chief said the frigid temperature was among
the biggest challenges for crews, as water froze
almost immediately after it stopped moving. Crews
had to call in a grader to remove a significant
amount of ice that had accumulating on the
northbound travel lane.
"We had quite a few trucks freeze up. We had
10,000 feet of hose frozen at one point. We still
have somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 feet of
hose frozen in the street," the chief said this
morning.
"At the high point of the fire, they had three
and a half miles of hose laid."
Siegel said inspectors from the state Fire
Marshall’s Office were on the scene at press time,
trying to determine the cause of the fire.
As crews continued to pour water into the
building’s burning innards, the chief said he was
proud of the firefighters’ effort, which required
a huge amount of cooperation from a dedicated
group from many towns.
"They are doing a tremendous job ... that
building down there (the Major Brands Plaza)
wouldn’t be there if we didn’t have mutual aid,"
said Siegel.
Siegel said two excavators were called in to
help move the rubble so they could get to the hot
spots.
Belmont, Winnisquam, Bristol, Andover,
Barnstead,and Sanbornton were still on the scene
this morning, pouring water onto the rubble pile.
"We expect to be here most of the day," the chief
said. Other departments were released just before
daylight.
Keyspan and Public Service of New Hampshire are
returning to assist.
Chief Siegel said that, of 200 pieces of
firefighting equipment in the Lakes Region, 80 of
them were moved to the scene or various stations
as cover trucks. "That’s almost one-half of the
trucks in the system," he said.
Mutual Aid also called in additional personnel
to assist with dispatching firefighters and
equipment to the scene or to the cover stations.
