Malden, Massachusetts: Fire Rips Through Porter Street Triple-Decker and Sends a Firefighter to the Hospital

What happened on Porter Street

A fire tore through a multifamily home on Porter Street in Malden, Massachusetts, on Friday, October 23, burning through all three floors of the triple-decker and spreading to an adjacent building, WCVB reported. Boston 25 News reported that smoke from the fire could be seen for miles and that the flames burned the porches off the building.

One firefighter was taken to a hospital. Boston 25 News reported that the firefighter was hospitalized, and WCVB reported that a firefighter was injured while crews battled the fire. Neither station reported a resident taken to a hospital in its first accounts on Friday afternoon.

How many people lost their home

The two stations gave different early counts of the people forced out of the building. WCVB reported that 15 people were displaced. Boston 25 News reported that up to 20 people had been displaced after flames burned through all three floors. Early counts after a fire often change as officials confirm who lived in each unit, and neither station had published a final count by late Friday afternoon.

Malden is a city in Middlesex County, just north of Boston. Triple-deckers, three-story wood-frame houses with one flat stacked over another, are one of the most common forms of housing in Malden and in older neighborhoods across the Boston area. Fire can move quickly from floor to floor in these buildings, and a fire that reaches all three floors usually leaves every unit unlivable until inspectors and repair crews have finished their work.

What is known and what is not

WCVB reported that thick smoke poured from the home on Porter Street while firefighters worked at the scene, and that the fire spread from the multifamily residence to a building next door. Boston 25 News published its account at 1:57 p.m. Eastern on Friday, October 23, while the fire was still the focus of coverage in the neighborhood.

Officials had not announced a cause for the fire in the reports published on Friday afternoon. Fires of this size are normally investigated after the building is safe to enter, and investigators establish where the fire started before they say anything about how it started. The Orbit Post will update this story when Malden fire officials release a cause, a final count of displaced residents, or the condition of the firefighter taken to the hospital.