By Michael Petrocelli : The Herald-Sun
mpetrocelli@heraldsun.com
Apr 21, 2003 : 8:10 pm ET

DURHAM -- Three people, including an 86-year-old man, escaped unharmed from a fire that severely damaged a Massey Avenue house Monday morning, but a litter of puppies died in the blaze, fire investigators said.

Eight people lived in the two-story building, which served as a sort of boarding house, said Capt. Tony Barringer. All three who were inside at the time of the fire escaped before fire crews arrived, he said.

One of the three men suffered mild burns on his face while trying to put out the fire, but none had to be hospitalized, Barringer said.

Firefighters found five or six dead puppies while clearing rubble from the house, Barringer said. They did not know the dogs were in the house because none of the residents had mentioned them, he said.

The fire started in a room in the back of the mostly brick house, located at 508 Massey Ave., and spread to the second story and attic, Barringer said. The cause of the fire was still being investigated but it was most likely sparked by an accidental electrical problem, he said.

The call came in a few minutes before 11 a.m. and firefighters had the blaze under control within 15 minutes, Barringer said. By noon, firefighters had the blaze mostly extinguished but were still putting out "hot spots," he said.

Smoke was still wafting through broken windows and from a gash in the attic roof that firefighters had punched as a vent. A group of firefighters tossed damaged furniture from a back room through an open door jamb, while another team pried pieces of charred and waterlogged siding from an upstairs addition.

The house, across the street from Lincoln Community Health Center, will need a good deal of repair work, he said. "It’s not going to be livable until extensive renovations are done," he said. David Greene Jr., part-owner of the house, said his father, David Greene Sr., 86, was in the house when the fire started as were the younger Greene’s brother and another man who was working on the house.

Greene stood across the street from the still-smoldering house with his father, who sat wrapped in a white blanket on a folding chair. Greene, who said he lives nearby, said he rushed over as soon as he heard of the fire from a neighbor, afraid that his father might have been trapped inside.

"If your father was in there you’d be scared too," he said. Greene said his family was already putting work into the house, where bare wood walls of an enclosed porch as well as some wood scaffolding on the front of the house were left untouched by the fire. "We’re trying to get the house up to standard, and now there’s more construction involved," he said.
Batt-1,2, Engines 4,3,12, Ladders 1, 12, Squads-4,1 and MS-1 responded.