Westfield Fire Capt. Chuck Warren and firefighter Rick Porter push water at a stubborn hot spot in the attic of a Noble Avenue residence Monday. The fire claimed the life of a city man. (File photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – The fire early Monday morning at 26 Noble Ave. which killed the resident, Raymond Megaro, 92, was caused by a faulty furnace, officials have discovered, but that wasn’t the only problem.
A joint press release issued Tuesday with the authority of the Massachusetts Fire Marshall, Stephen D. Coan, Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan and Mark G. Mastroianni, the Hampden County District Attorney, reports that the fire began in the basement of the Victorian house when the furnace’s blower malfunctioned.
The investigators also found that there were no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the house and their lack may have allowed the fire to become well established before an alarm was raised.
“This is the time of year when fires tend to increase,” Regan said. “It is more important than ever to make sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that can give you early warning of trouble.”
“I cannot stress enough that working smoke and CO detectors save lives,” she said.
Her sentiment was echoed by Deputy Chief Patrick Egloff, the department’s fire prevention officer, who said the smoke detectors should be “the number one priority” for residents and points out that “it’s the law.”
Egloff said that, if there had been working smoke detectors in the building, the fire “would have been caught much sooner.”
He said that he has “no doubt that (smoke) detectors would have prevented this death.”
Coan said that a working carbon monoxide detector “can be an early warning sign the heating equipment is malfunctioning.”
Egloff said that routine maintenance of the furnace might have prevented the fire at Noble Avenue and said “any kind of furnace should be cleaned on an annual basis.”
But, he stressed that working smoke detectors are most important in preventing fires and fire deaths.
“I can’t say it enough”, Egloff said, “smoke detectors save lives.”
The Department of Fire Services had an ongoing heating safety campaign “Keep warm, keep safe” and residents can find heating safety information and tips by accessing www.mass.gov/keepwarmkeepsafe.
