Crime & Safety

Two-Alarm Fire Strikes Two-Family Vine Street Home

Construction work at the home appeared to have led to the fire that left an apartment uninhabitable.

UPDATE TUESDAY, 2:05 P.M.

Melrose firefighters knocked down a two-alarm fire at a duplex-style two-family home at 3 Vine St. Tuesday afternoon that has left an apartment uninhabitable.

Melrose Fire Capt. John White said it appeared that construction work was being done on the outside of the home facing Myrtle Street, where the fire started and was mainly contained.

Find out what's happening in Melrosewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"(The fire) got inside the soffit and went up to the roof line," White said. "Pretty much that top floor apartment is destroyed, and a lot of water damage on the floors below."

White said that he hadn't had a chance to speak with the workmen yet and determine how the fire started. The grass on the front lawn of the home also appeared burnt.

Find out what's happening in Melrosewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I don't know what they were doing, trying to burn the paint off and it was falling down and caught the lawn also, or maybe they just saw it was on fire and dropped the torch—not really sure what happened yet," he said.

A second alarm was struck for the fire at approximately 12:40 p.m., shortly after the first report came in. By 12:50 p.m., no flames were visible from the street, but some smoke continued to waft up from the roof and soffit on the side of the home.

While the fire mainly burned on the Myrtle Street side of the home, White said the roof sustained heavy damage.

When firefighters arrived on scene, everybody was out of the building and there were no injuries immediately reported, nor any injuries to firefighters, White said.

Firefighters from Malden, Wakefield, Reading and Saugus supplied mutual aid at the scene.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.