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A quick-moving fire destroyed a two-story house on Lebanon Street Wednesday afternoon leaving two families displaced. A Medford Armstrong crew driving by noticed the fire on the second floor back porch and eventually firefighters from six surrounding towns came to the Winchester Fire Department’s mutual aid, according to Winchester Fire Chief Steven Osborne. The building at 1 and 3 Lebanon St. on the corner of Washington St. was fully engaged before the fire was put out.
The two occupants of the first-floor condo escaped unharmed and spoke with Winchester News about what happened. Sean Yun heard fire detectors going off, “I thought it was just smoke from some cooking and when I went out to check it was literally raining fire from the second-floor porch.”
His father Vincent Yun was in the living room and they quickly evacuated. They couldn’t get anything out of the house but neighbors came to give Sean a jacket and slippers.
Sean said the second-floor owners weren’t home but they have two school-aged children. Chief Osborne said the Red Cross was on the scene to provide aid and the Boston Sparks came quickly as well. Sparks director Justin Holstrum told the News they came at the second alarm to provide coffee, drinks, snacks, gloves and hats. The Sparks respond to about 200 fires a year in the Greater Boston area.
Winchester Fire Chief Steven Osborne has been chief only since April 29 and he’s had two significant fires to fight. The first one on Harvard St. on his third day on the job and today’s fire at the corner of Lebanon and Washington Streets, blocking Washington Street traffic from Tufts Road to Lincoln Street.
He told the News that the State Police Fire Marshal, “is there now and Winchester’s arson investigator Lt. Jeff Russo (a Winchester High School graduate) will work with state fire officials to determine the cause. Winchester is fortunate to have a very good fire department and we have very good notification so that most fires are stopped as a room and content fire and don’t end up being a structure fire.”
