A Hundred Firefighters Respond to Boston Blaze

BOSTON --

About 100 Boston firefighters responded to a four-alarm fire in a commercial block in the city's Fenway neighborhood overnight that forced dozens of residents out into the cold.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries from the fire near Fenway Park, but two firefighters were hospitalized after slipping on ice.

Freezing temperatures were hampering firefighting efforts and another fire that sprang up in the city's Jamaica Plain neighborhood at the same time complicated matters.

Fire officials said the fire broke out in a business at the corner of Peterborough and Kilmarnockabout 2 a.m.

It was unclear exactly how the blaze began, but it was thought to have started in Thornton's bar and restaurant and then spread to adjoining businesses that included six more restaurants and a dry cleaners.

All were destroyed and damages were estimated to be about $5 million, fire officials said.

A five-story elderly-housing apartment building next door was evacuated and 23 residents, many of them disabled, were moved to a nearby school as a precaution while firefighters worked to keep the flames from spreading.

"The smoke was pouring in and the alarms were going off so we rushed around the halls and we got most of the people we could out of the building," one resident said.

"We've evacuated the five-story building next door, it was full of smoke. The fire has not extended to that building yet but we have a couple companies in there trying to prevent that," Boston Deputy Fire Chief Robert Dunderdale said.

The William McKinley Preparatory High School on Peterborough St. was closed as a result of the fire. The school was not damaged, but fire trucks on scene were making it difficult for school buses to approach the area. All staff were required to report to the McKinley Middle School at 50 St. Mary Street.

All three other McKinley school programs were open on a regular schedule.

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