North End blaze causes over $1M in damages

BOSTON (WHDH) -- Flames engulfed a North End building late Tuesday night, which forced people to make desperate decisions in order to escape the blaze.

One person did suffer burns in the fire, but everyone made it out of the four-story Cooper Street building alive.

Witnesses said the victim ran out of the front door of the apartment building. They said she made her way through the fire from her third-floor apartment.

“She come from the front door, she come walking out of the flames,” said Danny Saliva, who helped the burned victim.

“I heard a couple people say, ‘Help, Help.’ I look to my left and burned. She had, like, skin kind of hanging down. Her pants were burnt to her legs,” said Chris Marchal, who helped the burned victim.

Several neighbors helped the stunned woman get to an ambulance.

“She was like, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ and I was like, ‘Hold on, hold on, we’re going to get you some oxygen,’” said Saliva.

At the same time, other neighbors were helping two neighbors trapped on the first floor. One man helped the neighbors jump out the window.

“I ran over and two girls were, like, crying, screaming, trying to get out of the building…just grabbed their feet and helped them get out of the window” said Michael Allen.

Officials said the fire started on the first floor and raced up the building. Officials said crews did an amazing job keeping the fire to just one building.

“Anytime there’s a fire in the North End it’s very difficult. Congestion of the streets, the size -- width -- of the streets are very small, trying to get equipment and the apparatus in place is a very difficult task,” said Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Finn of the Boston Fire Department.

There is no word on a cause of the fire. The Red Cross is helping more than a dozen people who were left homeless. The fire department said the building is considered a loss and the estimated damage is more than $1 million.