By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Three homes on the Portsmouth waterfront were destroyed by fire in an early morning blaze that left several firefighters with minor injuries, and investigators working to determine whether everyone escaped from the homes.
“We know of at least one family that left the house and another family that was out of town so we’re still trying to account for everybody,” said Portsmouth Fire Chief Mike Cranson.
“We were looking outside my back window, and you could see flames shooting 30, 40, 50 feet in the air,” said Sherri Johnson, who lives a few doors and around the corner from the three houses that burned.
“It was huge, you could definitely tell there was more than one house on fire,” said Johnson, who also heard explosions, believed to be from propane tanks at the houses.
Eight hours after the 2:30 A.M. blaze on Narragansett Boulevard in the Common Fence Point neighborhood, investigators from the State Police and the State Fire Marshal’s office were waiting for firefighters to fully extinguish to begin looking into the cause of the fire, and to sift through the smoldering rubble to verify whether everyone could be accounted for.
Chief Cranson said he quickly called for a second and third alarm, which brought fire crews from a half dozen neighboring departments.
