VIDEO: Several firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion after battling a house fire in Barrington on Tuesday. According to Barrington Fire Captain Jason Fanion, the exterior of 52 Talcott St. was being worked on when the fire started just before 11 a.m. He said workers may have sparked the fire while doing โhot work,โ which is work that involves an open flame, such as welding or soldering. โWe had a very labor-intensive operation of actually pulling ceilings down, floors, opening up walls, trying to find where the fire was,โ Fanion explained.
Crews from Bristol, Warren, East Providence and Seekonk responded to help put out the four-alarm fire. Fanion said those additional crews were called in mainly because of the high temperatures. โItโs very, very challenging, thatโs why we went to a fourth alarm for this, brought in a ton of help,โ he said. โWe had guys inside for very short amounts of time come out with heat exhaustion, dizzy, nauseous, vomiting, so you have to get them cooled off.โ
Those firefighters dealing with heat-related issues were treated at the scene, but there were no other injuries, according to Fanion. He said the home is not going to be habitable due to โsignificant structural damageโ on the second floor and some fire damage on the first floor. โLuckily, it was a well-built older home so structural collapse wasnโt really an issue for us,โ Fanion added. The specific cause of the fire is now under investigation.
