Elderly Couple Killed After Fire Tears Through Malden Home
MALDEN (CBS) – A man and woman were killed after an overnight fire at a home in Malden. Officials say the cause of the fire was the "improper disposal of smoking materials."
Firefighters were called to the apartment complex on Perkins Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Dep. Fire Chief Greg Cavalieri said there were heavy flames when they arrived, but they knocked them down fairly quickly.
Neighbors rushed to try to rescue the couple inside, throwing ice and snow at the home to try to put out the flames.
"I just saw the fire, and all the neighbors began to come out of everywhere," neighbor Wilson Mancilla told WBZ-TV's Anna Meiler. "We really didn't know what to do. We kind of felt hopeless, because the fire was already coming out of the front door. My mom, as soon as she just began to run to them, and she was crying," he said. "It was really hard."
When firefighters went inside, they found two people.
"One of the victims was located on the first floor and the second victim was located in the doorway of the second floor bedroom," Cavalieri told reporters.
The man was dead, and the woman was taken to the hospital, where she later died.
Their names have not been released.
"They were really great people," Mancilla said of the couple. "They just lived here their whole lives, and we just really don't know how this happened."
Fire officials say there were no working smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms in the house.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports
