Fire guts pet shop

By Bonnie Obremski, North Adams Transcript
Article Launched: 01/22/2008 11:45:25 AM EST


NORTH ADAMS — A 7-inch leopard gecko and some fish survived a two-alarm fire in Tropical Gardens Pet Center at 17 Eagle St. Monday morning, but the rest of Terri Blair's animals perished in the blaze, including one parrot that had not been for sale, according to emergency responders.
The two-story fire scathed no humans, but Peter May, who owns the building, said he is afraid upstairs tenants Blair and William Cartwright, who ran the pet store, might not ever return.

"This business was her livelihood," May said of Blair as he shivered across the street from the pale aqua-colored storefront in single-digit temperatures just after 10:30 a.m. "I think that parrot she had was her best friend."

Fire Director Stephen Meranti said authorities were still investigating the cause of the fire, which ignited some time before 9 a.m. in the rear of the first floor and shot upwards through the walls to an attic space. He said the fire is not considered suspicious.

Firefighters exftinguished the blaze in about 45 minutes, after they arrived at 9:02 in response to a 911 call from a pedestrian who heard the building's fire alarm sounding, Meranti said.

"It was not your normal building layout," Meranti said. "It was difficult to get up into those spaces, and there was a lot of electronics equipment on the second floor that made it very difficult to get to where the fire was."
Firefighters, blinded by smoke and working in 8-degree weather, used thermal imag- ing machines to detect flames hidden in voids in an exterior wall and in the space between the second floor ceiling and the roof. Others vented the building by cutting a hole through the roof and through an unexpected sub-layer beneath it.

"The guys did a great job," Meranti said. "They saved the building and prevented the fire from spreading."

Smoke still crept into the surrounding buildings, however, and its smell lingered in the adjacent Bark n' Cat pet supply and gift store. Firefighters wrenched windows from the unoccupied building on Tropical Garden's other side to air the rooms. Hose water froze upon contact with the street's asphalt, posing an additional hazard for firefighters who waddled in stiff gear, the vapors of their breath filtering through their stocking face masks.

Melissa Wilkinson, the city's animal control officer, who responded on her day off, said many birds and fish, a handful of reptiles and about 20 small animals, including gerbils, died as a result of extremely hot temperatures and smoke. She said the surviving tropical fish might still fall ill or die as a result of the heat fluctuation. Emergency responders filled a 20-inch cage with corpses and sat it on the sidewalk, covering it with a blue tarp.

Meranti said the building is salvageable.

"The worst damage is to the roof area and second floor," he said. "It needs quite a bit of work. The first floor needs to be gutted."

The damage estimate was $125,000 to the building and $50,000 to its contents.May said there was not much he could do when he learned the building he had owned for more than a decade had burned except to go eat breakfast and call his insurance company.

"Ay caramba!" he repeated, investigating the pet store's charred chew toys and T-shirts still hanging on the walls. "I feel so bad for her. She must be freaking out."

Blair had briefly visited the scene shortly after firefighters extinguished the blaze, according to bystanders, and had appeared shocked.

Emergency responders cleared the scene at 12:01 p.m. North Adams firefighters were expected to monitor the building until about midnight to watch for potential flare-ups.

Meranti said about 30 North Berkshire firefighters helped in the effort, including Clarksburg firefighters who stood by at the North Adams fire department while all of the city's firefighters converged on Eagle Street.

Williamstown's Rapid Interven- tion Team and Adams' air-supply truck also came to the city's aid. The city's police department and North Adams Ambulance Service respon- ded, and employees of the Berk- shire Gas company shut off the building's gas supply.