Update: Pawtucket fire reignites

By: News Staff

Email: news@abc6.com

Twitter: @ABC6

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WLNE) — Intense flames lit up the Pawtucket sky early Friday morning, after a 5–alarm fire broke out at the old Roberts Chemical building on Pine Street.

“There was smoke everywhere. I thought that my apartment building was on fire because there was smoke absolutely everywhere,” said Veronica Alley, who lives in the apartment complex across the street.

“Like really, really heavy smoke that you couldn’t see through,” she explained.

Fire officials say the blaze started around midnight and flare–ups continued until about 5’oclock Friday morning.

“It’s been a long, wet battle,” Jay McLaughlin, assistant fire chief with the Pawtucket Fire Department, said on scene.

“You know, we’ve been here for about 7 hours so [the fire-fighters] are getting worn out,” he continued.

Veronica Alley watched the blaze from her apartment window.

“Through out the night, I though flames would go down. I was watching until about 5 AM and there were different places flames kept erupting from,” she described.

One person was taken to the hospital with significant burn injuries. Their condition and involvement in the incident is unknown at this time.

Fire officials have deemed the building a total loss.

“We’re going to have to have someone come in with a machine and start picking it apart,” Assistant Chief McLaughlin said of the rubble.

According to neighbors, squatters often occupied the vacant building, and some speculate it may have been a drug lab that went up in flames.

Fire officials would not confirm or deny those speculations, and say it is too early to determine a cause.

For those who live nearby, it’s an alarming thought.

“You can only hope – especially when living in an apartment building– that neighbors are taking precautions to eliminate the risk of fire, and hopefully not doing whatever they were doing in that building,” said Alley.

Update: Friday evening around 7 p.m. the flames reignited. Crews responded to put out the fire again.

Rhode Island State Fire Marshals are still investigating the exact cause of the fire.

© WLNE-TV / ABC6 2018