2 people saved from fire at mixed-use building in Westborough

Westborough firefighters successfully rescued two people from the roof of a burning building in the Massachusetts town early Sunday morning. Fire Chief Patrick Purcell said that at approximately 1:55 a.m. his department was called to 22-26 South St., a mixed-use building that houses retail on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floor. above. Firefighters encountered heavy flames at the rear of the building, as well as two people who were trapped on the roof while trying to escape the fire. These people on the roof were a long-time resident of the building and his girlfriend. “The alarms went off. We ran around the apartment to see what was happening. We opened the door to the stairs to go out, smoke was coming up,” the resident said. “We had a split second to know what to do.” Westborough firefighters rescued the man and his girlfriend with ground ladders before launching an aggressive attack on the fire, which was brought under control around 2:40 a.m. Purcell said those rescued suffered minor smoke inhalation and refused medical treatment. No injuries were reported in connection with the fire. “We're just lucky that our fire station is in this downtown area and we were able to put up ladders and pull them over before they got hurt,” Purcell said. “At first we received calls that a person was missing. We had to do primary searches on the upper floors and it came back negative. And once the searches were completed, the person returned home after an evening.” suffered approximately $1 million in damage as a result of the fire. Purcell said a Thai restaurant and an unoccupied storefront were severely damaged. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.