Boy credited with saving painter from fire that destroyed home in Hingham, Massachusetts

By Web Staff

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    HINGHAM, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A young child is being credited with saving a painter who was working in an upstairs bedroom when a massive fire broke out Monday in a Massachusetts home.

The boy, his nanny and the painter were in the home at 4 Mann St. in Hingham when the four-alarm fire broke out at about 12:50 p.m.

As the boy and his nanny started to evacuate, the boy told police that he remembered that a painter was working upstairs and alerted him to get out, Hingham Fire Chief Steve Murphy said.

The wind-driven fire quickly engulfed the 6,000 square-foot, three-story, multi-million dollar home. When Sky5 arrived at the scene, all that was left of the structure was collapsed charred beams, which were still burning.

By 3 p.m., all that was left of the home was a brick chimney rising from the center of the rubble.

“It was very apparent that the main body was going to be a complete loss. So, we wanted to prevent spread to the other buildings around here,” Murphy said.

Crews tried dousing nearby homes with water to help keep them from also catching fire and being damaged, but flames did spread to at least four other homes.

StormTeam 5’s Michael Page, who was in Hingham at the time of the fire and was at the scene, saw neighbors using garden hoses to try to prevent their own homes from catching fire.

Fire officials said a home at 2 Mann St. sustained significant fire damage and the family who lives there has been displaced. Several homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution.

“Everything is so close together here and it’s so dry that if the wind changes directions, this house could go, that house could go, my house could go. The whole block could have burned down,” neighbor Chris Moran said.

National Grid and the Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant were working to restore gas and electricity to the neighborhood after it had been shut off by the utility companies. According to the Weir River Water System, residents may temporarily experience discolored water due to the fire.

Murphy has requested that residents in the area of 4 Mann St. water down the mulch beds on their properties.

There were no reports of injuries. Approximately 120 firefighters responded to the scene to help battle the blaze.

Fire officials said the owners had just moved into the home.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials said it may have started on a porch.

StormTeam 5 meteorologist AJ Burnett said radar picked up the smoke plume from the large fire.

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