Paul Bass Photo
Tim Edwards had an elaborate home-cooked meal ready for his mom. Then their house erupted in flames.
The Mother’s Day misfortune took place around 3 p.m. Sunday. Forty-two firefighters ended up battling a three-alarm blaze at the three-family house where Edwards lives near Goffe Street at 375 Sherman Ave. No one was injured, but the Red Cross had to find places for two burned-out families to stay.
“I was cooking. Then I went to the store. I must have left [something] on,” Edwards (pictured above), who’s 20, said later Sunday evening at the scene.
Edwards said he had just finished preparing “steak, chicken, rice, corn” and other treats on the kitchen’s electric stove for his mom in honor of Mother’s Day when realized he needed butter. He headed out from their first-floor apartment down to Sam’s at Sherman and Whalley. He thought he had turned everything off.
Instead, firefighters made it back to the house before he did.
Fire officials were investigating the fire Sunday evening and had no comment on its cause. Assistant Chief Ralph Black said it did start on the first floor. The flames quickly spread to the upper floors through the walls and a stairwell, according to Black. Firefighters had to spray two adjacent houses to prevent serious damage there as well.
It took about an hour to get the blaze under control, Black said. He said three people lived on the first floor, two on the third. The second floor was vacant.
The house was badly damaged. Around 7:30 p.m. a man named Tate Smith asked fire investigator Todd Kornacki for permission to go the second floor to retrieve some objects. He claimed his uncle lived in that officially vacant unit. The house was too dangerous for members of the public to enter, but Kornacki planned to speak further with Smith.