No Injuries as Fire Rips Through 19th-Century Home

Firefighters are still assessing the damage from a three-alarm fire that ripped through a Griggs Road home late this morning, sending neighbors fleeing out into temperatures hovering in the mid teens.

Chief Peter Skerry said the fire was “mostly knocked down” as of 11:40 a.m., though firefighters continued to stream in and out of the attached building at 71 Griggs Road. Skerry said no injuries had been reported and the cause of the fire remains underinvestigation.

Firefighters were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. after a neighbor spotted smoke out of an attached apartment. The fire was quickly upgraded to three alarms and firefighters from Boston, Cambridge, Newton and Weston rushed to the scene.

Carol Taylor, a neighbor who lives at 67 Griggs Road, said her husband, Mark, called 911 after he looked out his office window and saw smoking coming from an adjoining home. She said they never heard a smoke detector or fire alarm.

“It’s an absolute miracle,” she said. “Thank God we were home.”

Taylor said she and her husband fled the building and found police already on the scene. She said she wasn’t sure how badly her home was damaged, though she’d noticed firefighters had punched holes in the roof above her unit.

The attached home at 71 Griggs Road is part of a building built in 1889 as part of the “arts and crafts style.” It was not yet clear whether the fire had spread to any of the attached units.

“It’s our worst nightmare,” said Taylor, who has lived in the building for 23 years. “We’re very fortunate that no one got hurt, and that it didn’t happen at night.”

Check back with Brookline Patch for more updates on the fire throughout the day.