Manchester Apartment Building Fire Started By Cigarette in Bed

BEDFORD, NH - A six-unit building in downtown Manchester could be a total loss after a fire was started by people smoking in bed. According to the Union Leader, Manchester firefighters spent several hours dousing the fire at 374 Merrimack Street.

No injuries were reported.

“I woke up to screaming,” said a man who would only give his first name, Gary, and said he lived in the building next door. Flames had engulfed the third-floor porch and stretched into the apartments, he said.Smoke detectors were sounding, and heavy black smoke, held in by the damp weather, settled in the neighborhood initially, he said.

District Fire Chief Hank Martineau said preliminary indications are that the fire started on the second floor, where people had been smoking in bed. The third floor sustained the most significant damage, with embers showing in some locations and a collapsed porch roof. The second floor was charred, but firefighters were seen walking in a stairway there once most of the flames were extinguished.

To read the full story, visit the Union Leader here.