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Bowers Street fire displaces 19 residents

9 Bowers St. as seen from Whiting Street Friday afternoon. (Marlon Pitter/Connector)

Marlon Pitter
Connector Editor

A multi-family home near University Crossing caught fire Friday afternoon, displacing 19 residents.

Fire crews were called to 9 Bowers St. around 3 p.m., where a fire damaged the roof and multiple levels of the building, according to Lowell Fire Department Deputy Chief Patrick McCabe.

“They hit it from the outside first, knocked the heavy fire down, then went in and continued the extinguishment from inside,” McCabe said of the efforts to put out the fire.

Rebecca Bitegetsimana, 18, said she witnessed the fire from inside the building as smoke rose to the third floor.

“It started from behind the house,” she said. “The whole smoke was in front of the door.”

Siblings Dahlia Paw, 18, and Billy Doh, 21, live on the first floor of the building and were among those displaced by the blaze. Paw said her brother was home when the fire began and called 911.

Nicole Peterson, a junior public health major, said she heard a nearby tree “sparkling and crackling” as she and her roommate witnessed the fire from their apartment at 217 Salem St.

“I think it was the grill that caught on fire first, and then the tree, and then the house caught on,” Peterson said.

Heidi Laferrie, 26, of 5 Bowers St, an adjacent building damaged by the fire, said she was alerted of the fire by a neighbor and evacuated with her children. She was among 11 residents who were temporarily displaced.

“We have a coop in our backyard, and it was on fire, and then it just went up in flames,” said Laferrie. “It was just…crazy.”

Residents of the charred building were allowed to retrieve important possessions, such as medications and important documents later in the afternoon, but the building is no longer inhabitable, according to Lowell Fire Department Chief Jeff Winward.

“We’re working with the Red Cross, CTI (Community Teamwork, Inc.) and our emergency management team to place the 19 people from this building,” he said. “They’re going to go in a hotel over the weekend, and we’re gonna try to get them apartments early next week.”

No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Update: This report previously mentioned that 18 people were displaced from 9 Bowers St. Chief Winward later stated that 19 people have been displaced from the residence.

Marlon Pitter is a former editor-in-chief of the UMass Lowell Connector. Hailing from Hartford, Conn., he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in journalism and professional writing and a digital media minor in 2017. Follow him on Twitter @marlonpresents.

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