Two Killed, 5 Injured, 11 Homeless In East Boston Blaze

Firefighters made a desperate bid to save two people who ultimately succumbed to their injuries yesterday in an East Boston blaze that left five others injured and 11 homeless, authorities said.

Firefighters found one man dead after 2:30 a.m. on the first floor of 64 Gove St., and carried a woman down a third-floor fire escape in the dark, but she later died of her injuries, said Steve MacDonald, a fire department spokesman.

``The whole street was filled with smoke, and the third floor was engulfed in flames,'' said Ian Crowley, 30, a tenant of the building next door, who had just come home from the Celtics' playoff game. ``I saw one man get carried out. He looked like he was dead. Two firefighters had him draped over their shoulders.''

Carlos Nieves, captain of Ladder 21, said he saw a man screaming that his sister was trapped on the third floor. The only way upstairs was on a fire escape at the back of the three-story building, Nieves said. When they got to the top, they began breaking windows and forced their way inside, he said.

``I spotted a body three to five feet from the window,'' he said.

The woman apparently had made her way out of a roughly 5-by-5 pantry that was being used as a bedroom off the kitchen and tried to get out of the apartment but was most likely overcome by smoke, he said.

By the time firefighters got her out, she was in full cardiac arrest, Nieves said, but they managed to revive her and rush her to Massachusetts General Hospital.

While Nieves was being treated there for a shoulder injury, nurses gave him updates on her condition, he said, but after his release, he got a call saying that she had been pronounced dead. Neither her name, nor the name of the man who was found dead on the first floor, was released by early last night.

Two other tenants were treated for burns and smoke inhalation, and another was taken to the hospital for evaluation after the two-alarm blaze, MacDonald said.

The remainder of the 11 adults and two children who lived in the building are staying with family and friends, he said.

``Right now, we're trying to come up with where the fire started and how,'' MacDonald said.

Nieves said the pantry in the third-floor apartment appeared to be illegal. But as of last night, the Inspectional Services Department could not confirm that because it could not gain access to the building to do a complete inspection, ISD spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake said. The damage to the building was estimated at $250,000.

The owner, whom Timberlake identified as Ralph Ciruolo, was issued some violations for disrepair in 2008, but he was issued a permit in December of that year and corrected them, she said. He could not be reached for comment.