BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Two men are dead and five families have lost their homes following a third-alarm fire on King Street in Burlington. The Mayor’s office says the fatal fire marks the city’s first since 2012.
Burlington police have named the victims as Henry Burawa, 55, and Michael Loyer, 31. They lived in separate apartments on the second floor of the six-unit apartment building.
Burlington fire officials say they received several calls around 5:15 a.m. Saturday reporting the fire at 199 King Street. When firefighters arrived, flames engulfed the second floor and were extending into the third. Crews found Burawa and Loyer unconscious in one unit on the second floor. One man died at the scene. The other was transported to UVM Medical Center and succumbed to his injuries there.
Dan Dedominico, who rents a unit on the first floor, recalls waking up to the chaos. “I started to hear like sort of like yelling and frantic yelling and running around downstairs. I looked out my window, and I saw the fire was already flaming out the window,” Dedominico said. “The harder part to fix is definitely for me to be apart of an event where someone has died.”
Dedomenico fondly remembers hearing music from his upstairs neighbor, who he suspects is one of the deceased. “It was never an inconvenience to hear him play. We never didn’t want to hear him play. It was either his own music that he was playing or music that he enjoyed, and it was oftentimes hard to hear the difference because he was really good at his craft.”
Officials say the building did not have automatic fire sprinklers or a monitored fire alarm, but they noted several smoke alarms in the individual apartments. A preliminary investigation determined the fire was accidental. Officials say one of the residents fell asleep with smoking materials, which ignited nearby combustible materials.
Battalion Chief Patrick Murphy says the building has suffered significant damage. “All the floors are affected in some way shape or form whether it’s smoke, fire, or water. When you have a fire like this the fire department has to get to every piece of that building with water and smoke travels to every nook and cranny of the building,” says Murphy.
A total of 46 Burlington firefighters responded to the incident, assisted by several area departments, including South Burlington and Colchester. One firefighter sustained minor injuries. Nobody else got hurt.
Mayor Miro Weinberger responded to the tragedy Saturday with the following statement:
“Early this morning, Burlington lost two residents in the City’s first fatal fire since June 2012. My heart goes out to the friends and loved ones of the deceased, and the other five households who are now displaced. I walked the burned-out building with Fire Chief Steven Locke soon after it had been stabilized. I commend the Burlington firefighters who responded to this tragedy within minutes of the emergency call. They moved swiftly through the structure while it was still engulfed in flames to ensure that no other lives were lost.
“An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway. What is already clear is that the fire moved through the apartment building with stunning speed and power, upending the normalcy of many lives in a matter of minutes. I urge everyone to check your smoke alarms and fire systems regularly – and hug your loved ones. Despite all the progress we have made on building fire safety in recent decades, our protection from sudden tragedy requires ongoing vigilance.”
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January 10, 2021 at 03:37AM
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Two die in Burlington's first fatal fire in nearly a decade - WCAX
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