GREENFIELD — Days after fire damaged a house at 114 Wells St., the lingering scent of smoke is still heavy in the air.
Discarded items fill boxes in the front yard. A bicycle leans against a tree, spokes bent from fire damage. Around the back of the house, scavengers pick through more boxes, passing over a melted television and soot-covered odds and ends.
“You wouldn’t believe the vultures around here,” says Dwane St. Marie, the building’s property manager and a tenant. He’s standing just inside the back door — the place where he re-entered during Monday morning’s inferno searching for occupants.
“One of the kids had his bicycle chained on the front porch. I’ve seen, like, 10 people start to wheel it away and then realize it’s broken. People lost everything and they’re down there taking stuff.”
The state fire marshal determined that the fire was started by a cigarette. They found cigarettes scattered around the floor and a melted ashtray on the porch. The building had nine smoke detectors and six CO2 detectors. There was a no-smoking policy upstairs and two fire extinguishers, which no one had time to use.
The Greenfield Fire Department arrived around 3 a.m. Monday and found flames licking up from the porch to the second story. They quickly knocked the fire down, but spent hours ripping open ceilings and walls putting out hot spots. The building has been condemned.
Residents of the house scattered after the fire. Some are staying with family and friends, others are homeless or have moved out of state looking for new opportunities.
St. Marie said he’s bouncing from couch to couch, waiting to hear what will happen to the house. His son is staying with a friend.
At the Rodeway Inn, Madelynn Malloy is staying with John Farell, a military veteran who leaped from the second floor during the fire with his service dog, Tank. Also living in the room are her daughter, Josephine, and her dog, also named Josephine.
She said it has been difficult to find lodging, because the programs set up to help people in emergency situations require documents — which she doesn’t have anymore since she lost them in the fire.
“In the back of my mind, I always thought there were services set up for situations like this,” she said, “It’s pretty daunting first to qualify for programs and then to find the documents they need.”
Right now, the entire building has been condemned, even though the back portion remains relatively untouched.
Inside, the house is covered in black soot. Food still in a refrigerator, dishes still in a sink, beds left bare.
“That room was baby blue,” St. Marie says, looking through a window overlooking the street: “I had just redone it.” He steps over debris and sips his coffee.
“I was in the middle of buying it (from Dale and Debra Mathey, who live in South Carolina). Now that’s not happening. Today something’s there, tomorrow it’s not.”
Farell and Malloy both have websites set up so that people can donate to help them out.
To donate to Farell and Tank: www.youcaring.com/tank-at-paws-to-serve-rescue-service-dogs-500931
To donate to Malloy: www.gofundme.com/xmhx98
You can reach Andy Castillo at: acastillo@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 263
On Twitter, @AndyCCastillo