10 Flee Smoky Apartment Fire-This Day In Norwood History-September 15, 1965

A smoky fire in an apartment at 264 Dean street early last Monday morning caused injury to one firefighter, damage to the apartment estimated at $3500 and caused 10 persons to flee at 3:33 a.m.

According to Fire Chief living Dobson and Fire Lt. Robert Stanton, the fire was believed to have been caused by the careless disposal of a cigarette which set fire to a foam rubber cushion and spread throughout the living room on the second floor of the duplex apartment building.

The fire was in the apartment of Karen Bullard, 28, who fled from her flaming and smoke-filled apartment apparently unharmed. Firefighter William Gorman suffered a sprained ankle fighting the blaze and was treated at the Norwood Hospital and sent home.

Firemen had to don oxygen masks to enter the building from which other tenants, including Mrs. Philip W. Farlinger, her husband and their two children, Susan, 2, and Elsine, 7 months old, Mr. and Mrs. Julio Rotondi, her brother Kevin Hoare of London, England, who was visiting here, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sorgi, had fled. Several other apartments in the brick building were unoccupied at the time.

Norwood Fire Record

At 12:33 a.m. Monday morning a roaring apartment house fire sent ten people hurrying to the streets, but luckily injuring no occupants. After having received several phone calls for an apartment house fire at 264 Dean street, first apparatus arriving at the scene found thick black smoke and flame coming from the top floor Firefighters donned oxygen masks and entered the burning building, while other firemen laid heavy hose lines, and raised aerial and ground ladders to the windows, believing that people were still in the building. A quick search by firefighters revealer that all occupants had fled the blaze. Firefighters were kept at the scene until 2:22 am, when the all-out was finally sounded.

Norwood firefighters were called to the Norwood Airport at 7:00 on Monday evening, when a runaway plane went out of control on the taxi strip and crashed into another plane, then caromed across the runway and slammed into a thick wooded area, severely damaging the aircraft. The Norwood ambulance and all available apparatus was dispatched to the scene.

Last Wednesday afternoon apparatus was called to Marlboro street where a gas pipeline became ignited by construction workers when it was accidently broken. Firemen laid hose lines and set up foam equipment and stood by in case it became uncontrollable. The line was shut off and the gas in the pine was allowed to burn off. This took about four hours, and one engine company was ordered to stand by all the time.

Late Monday night two alarms in 12 minutes kept the department busy. At 11:30 p.m. a call from 45 Hawthorne street sent apparatus to a home where a water leak had caused a short circuit in a light fixture. Firemen fixed the leak and cleaned up the water, also making sure the electrical service was all right again.

While at the Hawthorne street alarm, they received a call from the police for assistance at an accident in front of the town hall, where three persons were injured in a two-car crash. One youth, the driver, was pinned in the wreckage. All apparatus and the Norwood ambulance were sent to the scene. Firefighters ‘and police labored for 15 minutes, using pry bars and bare hands to force the front door off a sedan to free the driver who was Thomas A. Yurof of Mattapan. He was the most seriously injured of the three persons involved. Apparatus was kept at the scene until the cars were towed away. The sedan had been hit so hard it was driven up on to the lawn of the Town Hall. It was a total wreck Others injured in the crash were James Kiley, Dedham, and William Carrigan, Mattapan.

The record for the week shows the department answering to 22 alarms. The breakdown: five dwelling fires, 11 woods and grass and other miscellaneous fires, two automobile fires, one false alarm, one plane crash, one oxygen call, and one automobile accident. There were also 17 ambulance calls.

(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)