GREENFIELD — Four people have died in an early morning fire at 140 Meridian St.
Brian Tower, 48; Florenda Tower, 49; her son, Raymond Wood, 28, and his son, William Paul Clark, 5, all died in the early morning fire, according to a spokeswoman from the Office of the Northwestern District Attorney.
Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan said a call came in at about 5:15 a.m. with a report of a home on fire with people possibly trapped inside. Police and fire personnel arrived shortly after and tried to gain entry to the house. Strahan said that because of the intensity of the heat and the size of the fire, they were unable to get into the house and perform a rescue.
He said that later during efforts to put out the fire, firefighters found the four individuals inside.
The fire was brought under control about 45 minutes after firefighters arrived on scene, and the investigation into the cause began.
The 1½-story white house was charred with large piles of belongings, including a child’s bicycle, outside the house on Sunday afternoon. Fire trucks and other emergency response vehicles were in front of the house, but the street was otherwise quiet in the aftermath of the fire.
Rich and Deb Plotczik live three houses down from the house that caught fire. They said they woke up to sirens and saw the fire past the two houses in between and went outside. When they went outside they saw fire trucks and emergency response vehicles along the street.
“We just kept hoping no one was in there,” Deb Plotczik said.
Their worst fears were confirmed later in the day when they saw the fatalities on the news.
She said she saw firefighters and police yelling into the house, and the first responders busted a window to get in.
The investigation into the origin and cause of the fire in the one-family home is ongoing. The State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal has taken over the investigation, with local departments assisting.
The Massachusetts State Police released a statement Sunday night about Brian Tower, who was a radio maintenance technician for the state police.
“Brian was a member of our State Police family, and as such, his loved ones were also part of our family,” the statement said. “We are mourning the sudden and tragic losses of four members of the MSP family tonight.”
He had worked for the department since 1988, out of the Northampton office.
Carissa Venym Lee, who describes herself as a friend of the family, has set up a GoFundMe page on behalf of Clark’s mother to help cover funeral costs. The campaign can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/2r3r6vk9