Boarders escaped from a raging fire at their three-story Chapel Street rooming house Thursday night thanks to fellow tenant Victor Paret, who ran through the building banging on doors.
Paret, 35, said he was returning around 8 p.m. from a friend’s house to his second-floor apartment at 1255 Chapel St. He didn’t get that far.
“There was smoke everywhere,” Paret said Thursday night as he waited across Chapel Street to see where he and his girlfriend, Julia Sanchez (in photo with him) would spend the night. Sanchez, who has lived in the former Schatz Furrier building for more than five years, looked on proudly but with eyes reddened with worry as Paret first told his story to a fire investigator and then to a reporter.
“I knocked on doors and called 911,” he said. He smiled shyly as others gathered on the sidewalk called him a hero.
One of those others was Michael McCall, right in photo, a tall, slim man with a gravelly voice and expressive face.
“The guy who lives upstairs woke me up,” he said as he and fellow tenant Steven O’Donnell sipped coffee prepared by neighbor Patricia Kane on her Dwight Street porch. They were waiting for fire investigator Michael Odenwaelder to interview them. McCall lived on the first floor and O’Donnell’s apartment was on the third of the building that held seven apartments.
“If it weren’t for Vic, I’d be dead,” McCall said. “He made sure everybody got out.”
As it was, he and his friend escaped with just the clothes on their backs, which in McCall’s case was a T‑shirt and a pair of shorts.
“I lost everything, all my money, and my cell phone,” he said. “I have a wife in Virginia and I can’t remember her number. It’s in the cell phone,” he said.
David Ross, a large man who used a cane, said he was working on a computer in his first-floor apartment when Paret beat on his door. “I went back to get the computer,” he said as he pointed to a large gym bag he was carrying. “As soon as they got me out, the lights went out,” he said.
He was looking for his year-old cat, Taco. “I can’t find him. I guess he’s OK,” he said.
The fire, which officials said was reported at 8:11 p.m., sent flames through the roof of the building that at one time had been the home of Schatz Furriers and the residence of the late Evelyn Schatz and her husband, Morris. She was a civic leader and a founder of the Chapel West Special Services District — and a determined woman you didn’t forget once you met her. (Not for nothing is that block of Chapel Street named “Evelyn Schatz Way.”)
Odenwaelder, the fire investigator, said no cause for the fire had been determined. “We’re still investigating,” he said.
Fire officials said three firefighters had been taken to hospitals for treatment of smoke inhalation. No other injuries to fire or police personnel were reported.
Thick, heavy grey smoke made breathing difficult and walking an adventure on the streets adjoining the burning building because in places, it was so thick you couldn’t see your feet. It was the kind of smoke that sticks to everything. Some police officers wore face masks, and the thick fog of smoke made the firefighters’ task more dangerous.
Firefighters were treated at the scene for exhaustion and smoke that didn’t require a trip to the hospital. Officials said most returned to duty.
Traffic was blocked off for blocks around the scene between Howe and Dwight streets, diagonally across the street from the YMCA. The residence buildings on either side were emptied as a precaution, said police Lt. Ray Hassett. Dozens of people watched from behind police tape or closer before being shooed out by police.
The fire died hard. More than an hour after the alarm was called in, flames were seen leaping from the roof. Firefighters said this fire was stubborn as any in recent memory.
“There’s got to be something feeding this fire. We got to it on all three sides, and it just won’t go out,” said one firefighter.
Fire equipment was parked on Chapel and Dwight streets, in the parking lot at Chapel and Howe and in driveways behind the burning building. By 10:30, officials began to say that it was being knocked down.
By that time, the victims were still waiting to hear what would happen to them. Police and fire officials said they were confident the Red Cross would be there to help.
The victims on Kane’s Dwight Street porch were still waiting.