Police were holding a woman in custody after her apartment went up in flames Thursday afternoon, prompting the arson squad to investigate a third house fire in two days.
The latest conflagration took place around 2:30 p.m. Thursday at 501 Blatchley Ave. It took place on the heels of two suspicious fires Tuesday, and a three-alarm blaze in Newhallville on April 16.
The newly renovated Blatchley Avenue building has four apartments.
The fire started in a studio apartment in the front of the building, said Fire Marshal Joe Cappucci. He said the woman who lives there was still inside when police arrived.
She was being held in a police car under the I‑91 overpass as firefighters tackled the blaze. She was uncooperative with the arson investigators at the scene, Cappucci said. She had not been charged with any crime, a police spokesman said. Cappucci stopped short of calling the fire “suspicious.” He said arson investigators had yet to go inside and determine the cause of the fire.
As of 5 p.m., the state police had just arrived with accellerant-sniffing dogs, he said. The woman was still being held at the scene, Cappucci said.
The tenant who lived in the apartment just moved there four or five days ago, according to Pat Sheridan, who works for the property management company, Levitin Management, that runs the building. Sheridan stood by and watched in dismay as firefighters sprayed water on the gutted first-floor studio.
“We just repainted everything,” Sheridan said. The building, which sat vacant for a long time, was recently renovated and reopened to tenants.
Larnell Jackson (pictured) said he and his girlfriend moved into a third floor apartment just two months ago. He said his girlfriend was home at the time of the fire and phoned him to come home. Around 3 p.m., he looked on with his 5‑month-old pit bull, Roxy and surveyed the damage.
Most of the damage was contained to the first-floor studio apartment where the fire started, but other apartments suffered secondary damage that meant tenants could not go back in, Cappucci said.
In order to tame the fire amid high winds, firefighters broke through a skylight to let out the “hot, toxic gas,” he said. The other apartments had broken doors, and smelled like smoke. He said all the tenants — six adults and one child — would not be able to return that night. The building would be boarded up, and the American Red Cross would put them up for the night, Cappucci said.
The same building suffered a fire about 25 years ago, according to one firefighter at the scene. He said Thursday’s blaze sent flames leaping out of the first-floor window.
By 3 p.m., the fire was under control. Firefighters knocked a hole in the floor to let water out of the apartment. Others went to the roof to patch up the hole they had created to let the smoke out.
The blaze took place on a busy day for the city’s firefighting crew. Fire trucks also responded to two brush fires around noon — one at East Rock Park and one in the cattails near I‑91’s Exit 8, near the New Haven-North Haven border, Cappucci said. In both cases, the flames were fanned by gusts of wind, he said.
Great job bringing that fire under control. You men and women have a tough job and I commend you all. Thanks.