Peabody, MA 3rd Alarm - 168 Washington St - 12/25/16

Peabody firefighters battled a fast moving fire in a large 3.5 story apartment house above a commercial salon on the first floor on Christmas night December 25, 2016. A call came in reporting a building fire at that location and crews arrived to find smoke showing. An additional engine was requested to the scene and shortly after a 2nd alarm was transmitted.

Companies found heavy fire on the first floor salon that had extended up thru the walls to the upper floors. After an attempted interior attack, the OIC oredered all companies out of the building thus transitioning to a defensive posture. Firefighters ran and operated several big lines arounf the fire with Ladder 1's tower operating their ladder pipe on the "A" side of the building. Ladder 2 arrived at the scene manned by callback crews and set up and operated their master stream on the "B" side of the building on Swampscott Ave. The heaviest of the visible fire was knocked down in relatively short order but the fire continued to burn on the interior until enough water was poured into the building to allow crews to go back inside to overhaul and wet down hot spots. A 3rd alarm was requested late into the fire for additional manpower but the fire was at or near the knocked down stage by that time.

Surrounding communites including Salem, Danvers and Lynn provided help at the scene or in covering one of Peabody's then empty firehouses.

While I didnt arrive "late" to the fire, the bulk of the heaviest visable fire had already been knocked down, so whikle there wasnt much fire to catch, there was plenty of exterior work going on to grab.