The guys from a Blake Street frat house saw smoke — and ran over with extinguishers, just in time.
It was around 6 p.m. Wednesday. Members of Southern Connecticut State University’s Omega Psi fraternity were enjoying the last rays of a warm Spring day, tossing a football and hanging out outside the house they occupy at 322 Blake St., when they noticed flames down the street.
Tim Massey, Mike Zanarini, Max Feldman, and Gary Testa were among the brothers who rushed over to their neighbor’s house. They found flames leaping from a fence near two garages, and a fleet of limos in the back.
The man who owns the limos (and runs a limo business) had a garden hose on the flames, which were starting to eat at a next-door garage. He declined to give his name. The Omega Psi crew had grabbed three fire extinguishers on their way over, and went to work on the flames too.
The fire department, alerted by a 911 call, dispatched one truck company, three engines, a rescue unit, and an emergency unit. Firefighters finished off the job before the flames consumed the garage.
No one was hurt.
An arson squad was on the scene afterward. Battalion Chief Capt. Jim Stacy said his best guess was that a cigarette was tossed by the fence, or some other object that may have ignited the fence. He said the fence or dry leaves around it could have caused the flames to erupt.
Meanwhile, with Blake Street closed off to traffic west of the Fitch Street intersection, the frat brothers took their ball-tossing into the road and exulted in their heroics. (Click on the video above.) “We saved the day!” one proclaimed. Testa preserved pictures of the flames on his Blackberry.