By JOHN P. GREGG
Valley News Staff Writer
ENFIELD — Six people have been displaced temporarily following a two-alarm fire at a small apartment building on Main Street late Monday afternoon.
The Enfield Fire Department responded to the fire at 36 Main St. around 5:30 p.m., and firefighters were able to contain fire damage to the “room of origin,” according to a news release from Enfield Fire Chief Fred Cummings.
But there was minor smoke damage elsewhere in the three-unit building, and power was turned off by Liberty Utilities, the release said. The New Hampshire Fire Marshall’s Office is expected to inspect the scene Tuesday.
Fire officials said the fire at the two-story building at the corner of Main and High streets was not suspicious.
Cummings on Tuesday said the homeowner, Bob Gill, “was doing some soldering work in the basement, and once he finished what he was doing, he stepped away and went outside, and a few minutes later noticed there was smoke coming out of the first-floor apartment.”
“It traveled up and got into the cabinets in the kitchen and into the wall between the basement and the first floor,” Cummings said. “The fire itself never went past the room of origin.”
“There wasn’t any damage to the other units, other than smoke damage,” Cummings said.
Gill, who has owned the building for about 20 years, said he lives in the ground-floor unit with his wife and son. Three people live in the other units.
He is hopeful the tenants can move back soon.
There is “some electrical work to take care of before they restore power. Units two and three should be habitable as soon as it’s done,” Gill said.
“The first-floor unit is uninhabitable until it gets cleaned up,” he said.
The American Red Cross was on the scene Monday evening and helped residents make lodging arrangements, Cummings said.
The fire chief said no one was injured in the blaze, and that the fire was knocked down quickly because firefighters were able to respond within a minute from Enfield’s main fire station on Union Street.
“It was a great team effort by everybody involved,” Cummings said. “We had a truck on scene incredibly quick, and did an incredibly quick knockdown.”
Seven departments from the Enfield area responded or provided station coverage.
Correction
This post has been updated to correct how many people live in the building. News staff photographer James Patterson contributed to this report.