A senior housing resident has been admitted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after a kitchen fire in a third-floor apartment in downtown Lebanon, according to a news release from Lebanon Fire Chief Jim Wheatley.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at Rogers House, a senior housing complex next to City Hall on North Park Street, at 10:17 a.m. Tuesday. The road along Colburn Park was closed to traffic for about two hours.
“This is the most excitement we’ve had here in the six years I’ve been here,” resident John Allen said.
Wheatley said Lebanon firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and that the building’s alarm and sprinkler system “contributed to life safety and limited property damage.”
The fire was confined to a single apartment, but nine residents were displaced due to the water and smoke damage, Wheatley said in the news release. They have been relocated to area hotels, he said in a Tuesday evening email.
The woman who lived in the apartment where the fire took place was transported to DHMC and was in stable condition, the release said. She was being treated for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire was under investigation but was not considered suspicious, according to the news release.
The incident triggered public safety alerts Tuesday morning. In addition the Lebanon Fire Department’s response, Wheatley said fire departments from Hanover, Hartford, Enfield, Canaan and Norwich, as well as Lebanon police, helped at the scene. Woodstock and Plainfield Fire Departments and Canaan Ambulance provided city coverage.
Updated at 11 a.m. Wednesday.