Waltham fire displaces 17 people, leaving uncertain future

May 27-- May 27--WALTHAM -- Marvin Gonzalez fears his family will have to start from scratch after a three-alarm blaze tore through two homes on Adams Street, caving in the roof of a multifamily home and displacing 17 residents in total.

"A lot of memories," the 34-year-old reflected. "I've been here the past 12 years. We have to start over again."

Gonzalez, who lives on the second floor of 212 Adams St., said he and his family of four were at a wedding in New Jersey and luckily weren't in the building when flames started around 10:37 p.m. Saturday. He said his mom was inside before hearing a frantic "fire, fire," call from neighbors. Gonzalez said he doesn't have renter's insurance and worries about the uncertainty of immediate shelter for his family.

"I don't know what we're going to do," he told the Herald. "We're going to stay at a hotel for now. But, it's too expensive. I have some friends that I think I can stay with nearby. But I have no idea how long this will take. It's sad, but everybody is OK, that's the important thing."

Waltham Deputy Fire Chief Andrew Mullin said the fire caused "a significant amount of damage," to the building at 212 and 214 Adams St., which houses four families, noting that the roof caved in and the chimney was damaged. Next door at 218 Adams, the side of the house was burned, but the family who lives there was not inside during the fire.

One firefighter was taken to the hospital after battling the flames, but was later released and is OK, Mullin said. No other injuries occurred.

"It was bad. Any time you have two houses on fire, it's not good," Mullin said. "The guys did a tremendous job in heavy fire conditions upon arrival. They made an aggressive attack to keep it to basically what was burning when we got here."

Fire crews were working on scene through most of Sunday. Residents weren't allowed to re-enter the buildings while inspectors and engineers assessed the structure. Neighbors assisted Gonzalez's family while they waited to hear how bad the damage was.

"There's some hot spots we're still looking at," Mullin said Sunday afternoon. "The building inspectors have posted both buildings as unsafe structures. They have to be evaluated by an engineer before letting anybody in."

Neighbor Luz Ramirez, 52, said she and her husband were watching TV Saturday night and heard emergency responders start to arrive at the scene. She said the fire got so bad, smoke spread to her house, which is diagonal from the two burning houses. She witnessed people fleeing the multifamily home and said she offered some of the residents clothing, adding that some of the people who live inside were frazzled but appeared to be OK.

"It was so scary. All of the smoke. We couldn't breathe," Ramirez said. "We closed the window and the door and everything because it was so bad. It was a very, very big fire. Thank God nobody died. They got out from the house right away."

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