VIDEO: Two people died in a fire at an apartment building in Portland Sunday morning. The Portland Fire Department responded to 43 St. Lawrence Street– a three-story, four-unit apartment building– in the Munjoy neighborhood around 2:15 a.m., according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss. Fire crews faced heavy fire conditions on the back porch of the building, Moss said. When crews arrived, some tenants were already evacuating.
Two people were found dead inside, according to Moss. The chief medical examiner’s office will confirm their identifications and perform autopsies to determine their causes of death. Investigators from the state fire marshal’s office were on scene Sunday afternoon, working with the Portland fire and police departments. The fire remains under investigation. Neighbors say the fire was raging in the early morning Sunday.
“It was crazy because the flames were shooting out of the top and then we noticed that there were flames and the structure just behind it. It’s like a little shed kind of thing. And those were very high,” Christine Braceras, who lives two houses down from the scene of the fire, told News Center Maine. “I don’t know when it started, but when I saw it about 2:15 ’til 2:45, I think it was raging,” Caron Murray, who lives across the street, said. “I looked at that fire and I said, ‘That is a teardown now.'”
The American Red Cross is assisting the tenants who have been displaced, Moss said. Investigators are asking anyone with video of the incident to contact the police department. By 8:45 a.m., the fire was out, and the street was partially reopened, according to a NEWS CENTER Maine reporter who was on scene.
