2-alarm fire hits 2-story building; No one hurt, but 7 displaced.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Steven H. Foskett Jr.

FITCHBURG - Fire ripped through a multifamily home on Falulah Street yesterday afternoon.

Nobody was hurt in the two-alarm blaze at 73-75 Falulah St., although six adults and a baby were displaced, Deputy Fire Chief John C. Curran said.

The fire jumped to 69 Falulah St., which sits on a lot behind 73-75, and the heat of the fire melted siding on the back of 5 Hartford St. Neither house was as badly damaged as 73-75 Falulah; the four-unit, two-story home was gutted. The back porch area was blackened and falling apart, down to the studs and joists. Melted siding and other debris littered the ground in the back of the building.

Calls came in around 5 p.m. reporting the fire. Arthur Gagnon, who lives around the corner in the tightly-packed neighborhood, said he saw and smelled smoke, and when he walked up to the house a boy was sitting across the street yelling into his cellphone that his house was on fire. Mr. Gagnon said he banged on windows and yelled for anyone inside to get out, but said the boy told him there was nobody else in there.

"I went to the back and the back porches were totally on fire," Mr. Gagnon said. "The door to the house behind was hot when I tried to open it."

Fire Chief Kevin D. Roy said when he saw the thick black smoke...