Thomas Breen photo
Firefighters respond to McQueeney Towers fire.
A fire on the seventh floor of a downtown public housing complex left two tenants with minor injuries.
The fire took place Monday morning in a seventh-floor apartment at the 10-story, 150-unit Charles T. McQueeney Towers complex at 358 Orange St. near the intersection of Audubon Street.
McQueeney Towers is owned and run by the city’s housing authority, Elm City Communities, aka the Housing Authority of New Haven.
Fire Chief John Alston.
Fire Chief John Alston said that the department received a call about the fire at 8:49 a.m. One minute later, he said, firefighters were at the building and suppressing the flames.
He said the department helped evacuate two tenants, both of whom declined ambulance transport to the hospital after receiving an initial evaluation from city paramedics.
No firefighters were hurt, he said.
“It appears that it started somewhere in the kitchen,” city emergency operations chief Rick Fontana said about the fire. Alston said the fire marshal is now investigating the exact source of the fire.
