Fireplace destroys historic Veranda Home Lodge, surrounding Nantucket buildings

An enormous fireplace engulfed the historic Veranda Home Lodge on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts on Saturday and unfold to a number of different buildings. Photograph courtesy of Nantucket Fireplace Division

Photographs posted to Twitter by the hearth division present the Veranda Home Lodge immersed in flames as black smoke billowed into the sky. The lodge might be seen charred black with no roof remaining after the hearth was put out.

“An off-duty captain and several other civilians ran to the placement upon listening to of the hearth and assisted in eradicating friends from the lodge,” fireplace officers mentioned.

“The captain and others entered into harmful circumstances with out protecting tools to guarantee everybody acquired out of the constructing.”

Officers mentioned two folks have been present in a hallway and have been helped to security earlier than firefighters arrived.

No accidents to civilians have been reported after the incident however two firefighters have been taken to a neighborhood hospital for doable warmth exhaustion and a 3rd for a again damage.

“Because of the proximity of a number of buildings the hearth did unfold to a number of different buildings,” fireplace officers mentioned. “Intensive fireplace developed in at the least two of the buildings.”

Personnel from different Cape Cod departments have been referred to as in to help at the least 17 native firefighters from the Nantucket Fireplace Division who responded to the blaze.

A number of of the buildings have been described as “whole losses” although the estimated value of the harm to the buildings and property loss stays unknown.

The Nantucket Historic Affiliation notes that the property was bought in 1881 and transformed right into a boarding home, with electrical lights added in 1889 and a brand new porch put in in 1903.

An early commercial as soon as described it as “situated close to the shore of the harbor on elevated floor, a brief distance from the steamboat touchdown fitted with 18 giant, ethereal rooms, and three spacious verandas on every of the three sides of the home, the place patrons could take pleasure in the good thing about the ocean breezes.”

The Veranda Home Lodge was renamed the Overlook Lodge within the Thirties earlier than main renovations have been made and the unique identify was reclaimed within the mid-Nineteen Forties.

“With the assist of all the primary responders, and our local people members, we are able to affirm that every one staff and friends are safely evacuated and accounted for,” officers with the lodge mentioned in an announcement.

“The protection and safety of our friends, crew, and neighborhood is our prime precedence and we are going to proceed to work intently with emergency responders and security authorities. The Veranda Home crew is deeply grateful to the Nantucket Fireplace Division and first responders for his or her fast motion taken throughout this incident.”