Springfield firefighters investigate blaze that displaced three families on Holly Street in Indian Orchard

By Lori Stabile, The Republican

March 20, 2010, 2:30PM

SPRINGFIELD – An off-duty firefighter is being credited with saving three families on Saturday morning from a fire that ripped through their apartment building at 65-67-71 Holly Street in the Indian Orchard section.

The off-duty firefighter is Christian D. Lewis, who is assigned to engine 1, according to Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger.

Leger said the third floor tenant said she had no idea there was a fire and thanked the firefighter for saving her family.

Leger said the fire started on the third floor porch and smoke was spreading into the apartment when Lewis arrived. Leger said Lewis told him that he was driving by the house with his daughter, who spotted the flames.

Lewis said he had to convince the family to go through the smoke to get out, Leger said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Karen E. Price, who lives on the second floor of the building with her two children, was in the shower when she heard people banging on the doors and yelling for them to get outside.

Price stood in the street in a donated bathrobe and a towel on her head, holding teddy bears donated by the American Red Cross for her children and unborn baby. She is six months pregnant.

Michelle L. Nason, the first floor tenant, was in the bathroom when she heard the screams to get out of the house. Nason, who lives with her niece and four children, said this is the second fire she has been through recently. She lived at Brandon Avenue before, where a fire broke out last month. She is worried about where she goes next, as fires have broken out at the last two places she has lived.

“I wish this would never happen to another person. All the stuff we had, we lost everything in the last fire,” Nason said.

“We didn’t hear the alarms until we were already outside,” Nason said.

Both Nason and Price fear everything they did have was ruined in the fire. They said their landlord and the American Red Cross are helping them find alternative housing.

Nason’s niece, Tiffanie A. Nason, 16, said she had to jump over flames to get out of the house. She was in bed when she heard the yelling to get outside.

Leger said the fire was called in just before 9 a.m. and caused approximately $150,000 in damage at the three-family home. He said 21 firefighters responded and knocked the fire down in approximately 30 minutes.

Leger said the third floor experienced heavy fire damage and the first and second floors had heavy water damage.

The building is owned by Yellow Brick Properties of Granby.