Written on: July 24, 2018 by ICM
A Rockland firefighter injured in an early morning blaze that destroyed a heating oil company has been released from South Shore Hospital and is recovering at home, Rockland Fire Chief Scott Duffey said.
“It’s great news,” Duffey said.
Local and state investigators have determined the two-alarm fire first detected at Kelliher Bros. Oil on Plain Street at 3 a.m. was accidental and was apparently ignited by an overloaded power strip.
“It looks like an overloaded power strip,” Duffey said. “I would say the majority of the building is a loss and will have to be torn down.”
Duffey called in the state Department of Environmental Protection to perform an assessment of the devastation’s potential impact, though no storage tanks were compromised.
The first firefighters headed to the scene called for help before they even arrived.
“They could see the fire in the sky,” Duffey said. “When they got on scene they struck a second alarm requesting more help.”
Firefighters, he said, faced multiple challenges from the get-go.
In addition to a structure that was 50 percent engulfed in flames, Duffey said they were broken live electrical wires arcing in the street and an oil-delivery truck and four oil tanks nearby.
The tanks “were empty,” he said, “but they’re never really empty. There’s always some vapor or sludge in them.”
Duffey said it took more than half an hour to tame the inferno, aided by fire companies from Abington, Hanover, Whitman, Hingham and Weymouth.
Article courtesy: Boston Herald
