Fire at Bridge Street Residence in North Amherst Displaces Two

Source: Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren

Amherst Fire Department received a call via 911 from a passerby reporting smoke coming out of the front door of a house at #116 Bridge Street in North Amherst on January 6.  A second caller reported smoke coming from a second-floor window. A box alarm was sounded to summon all on-duty and off-duty firefighters. 

Initially, the nine on-duty full-time firefighters, along with officers from the Amherst Police Department, arrived on scene and found a homeowner trying to extinguish a fire in the first-floor living room of a two-story single-family residence.  

Crews were able to quickly extinguish the active fire, which was found to be around a wood stove in a first-floor living room, and worked for about an hour to extinguish the fire that had burned through the wood floor and into the crawl space underneath. 

The Amherst Fire Department was assisted on scene by the Amherst Police Department, Amherst Water Department, and the town’s building and electrical inspectors. The house was deemed to be uninhabitable by the building inspector due to the fire damage and the fact that the wood stove had been the only source of heat for the home. Water was shut off to the structure to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting. Two residents were displaced by the fire and will be seeking alternative housing. There were no injuries.  

During the fire, two unrelated EMS (Medical) calls in town were handled by off-duty firefighters who had responded to the fire. 

The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it is believed to have started around the wood stove, which was in use at the time of the fire. The fire was not suspicious in nature.  The involved section of Bridge Street was closed to all traffic for about two hours.