Chief: Damage from Griggs Road Blaze Likely to Top $1 Million

Brookline’s Fire Chief has confirmed that an unattended electric heater sparked the three-alarm blaze that left one home “pretty much gutted” and another badly damaged on Griggs Road yesterday morning.

Though a full assessment has not been completed, Chief Peter Skerry said the damage to 69 and 71 Griggs Road would likely exceed $1 million. He said one other attached home received minor damage, but residents have been able to return home to five of the seven units in the 19th-century building

No residents were injured in the blaze, which was reported around 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 18, but one firefighter hurt his back after slipping on a patch off ice in the 14-degree weather. Skerry said the firefighter is still recovering at Faukner Hospital.

Skerry said both families displaced by the fire are staying with relatives for the time being.

“It’ll be some time before they’re back in there,” he said.

The fire was first reported by Marc Taylor, a resident at 67 Griggs Road who noticed smoke streaming from a neighbor’s window shortly before 10:30 a.m,, according to his wife, Carol. The couple fled the house and found police already arriving on the scene.

Believing someone was trapped inside 69 Griggs Road, Sgt. Robert Disario kicked in the front door and ran upstairs with another police officer. Disario said both men turned back when they found the home empty and heard the crackling of the fire behind a closed door.

Skerry said firefighters encountered a “heavy volume of fire,” particularly in the rear of the building, when they arrived. Brookline crews attacked the building from Griggs Road and a back alley as companies from Boston, Newton, Cambridge and Weston were called to the scene.

Skerry said the fire was able to climb rapidly upwards through the house’s continues wooden studs, which were popular in a older style of construction called “balloon framing.” When it reached the roof, the fire apparently crossed over a firewall into the other unit.

Once the fire gets in the walls of older homes, Skerry said, it can be near impossible for firefighters to track down.

“It’s a cat mouse and game with the fire department,” the chief said.  “You can’t see it, but you know it’s in there behind the walls. It’s a difficult battle to win.”

Skerry credited the quick work of firefighters with keeping the blaze from spreading to other attached homes in the seven-unit building, which was built in 1889 in the style of the “arts and crafts” movement.

Investigators have determined that the fire was sparked by an electric space heater left too close to an upholstered chair in 69 Griggs Road. Skerry said his department discourages residents from using electric heaters, but urges those who have them to leave two feet of clearance space around the heaters and turn them off when leaving the room.

According to the Brookline assessors database, the home at 69 Griggs Road was last valued at $686,800, while the home at 71 Griggs Road was valued at $1,034,500.

Carol Taylor, the neighbors at 67 Griggs Road, called the fire her “worst nightmare” and said it was an “absolute miracle” she and her husband were home for the holiday to spot it when they did.

“We’re very fortunate that no one got hurt, and that it didn’t happen at night,” she said.