GREENFIELD — A man was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries early Tuesday afternoon following a reported explosion in the basement at 19 Prospect St.
The house was blown off its foundation shortly before 12:30 p.m., forcing roughly 50 firefighters from at least four stations to battle the blaze from outside the white two-story structure. The injured man was transported to Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield.
“We deemed it unsafe to enter the building. Firefighters initially did a preliminary search to make sure that no one else was in the building,” Greenfield firefighter William Kimball said, adding that personnel were immediately removed once the house was cleared. “It also caused the building to shift, so access is not as readily available. So we have to use our power equipment, our saws, to access the fire, as well as breaking some of the windows to try to get to the seat of that fire without actually endangering any of our personnel.
“Due to the damage to the building, we do believe there was some sort of explosion,” Kimball said. “We don’t know the cause as of yet.”
At one point, firefighters on tower ladders could be seen breaking a window in the front of the house. One was seen using an ax to tear away a section of the roof to gain access to the blaze. Smoke flowed out of openings in the structure and the smell of burning could be detected down the street. Greenfield police officers blocked traffic to Prospect Street at its intersections with Congress and Hope streets.
Firefighters from Greenfield, Turners Falls, Bernardston and Brattleboro, Vt., were at the scene. Kimball said his station got coverage from Deerfield and Turners Falls, and the Orange Fire Department covered the Turners Falls station.
Kimball said Eversource disconnected power from the house and Berkshire Gas isolated service as a precaution.
“That’s our standard operating procedure — to call both of them,” he said.
The seat of the fire was believed to be in the basement below some tanks that firefighters were spraying.
“They’re using thermal imaging cameras to monitor the temperature of those tanks as well as the building around them and just wetting down the area to keep them cool,” Kimball explained.
Onlookers stood on the nearby sidewalks up and down the street to observe the firefighting efforts. Amanda Odato, a neighbor working from home, said she just heard a “big boom” and then someone shouting “Call 911. Call 911.”
Jennifer DeBlase and her children watched the scene from Prospect Street’s intersection with Congress Street. She said she and her family considered buying 19 Prospect St. when it went on the market about three years ago, but after examining it decided it required too many repairs.
Later Tuesday evening, workers began demolishing the house, with Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan and Building Inspector Mark Snow explaining that firefighters couldn’t safely enter the building to put out the fire and the structure was in danger of collapsing on its own.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.