Flames were coming out of a house on Westminster Avenue when Watertown Firefighters arrived Tuesday afternoon. The Fire Department extinguished the fire, which went to two alarms.
At about 3:45 p.m., calls came in for a fire on Westminster, said Watertown Fire Chief Ryan Nicholson.
The resident noticed the fire and got out of the home before the Fire Department arrived, Nicholson said.
“Members of (WFD) Group 4, under Deputy Chief (Dan) Tardiff, put a quick stop to the fire,” Nicholson said.
The fire appeared to start on the first floor of the house, travel across the first floor and it caused a little damage on the second floor, too, Nicholson said. The fire was investigated and was determined to be accidental, he added.
The resident was examined by EMS personnel and Nicholson said she was not likely going to need to go to hospital for further treatment.
The fire occurred near two Watertown Public Schools, but Nicholson said school was out for the day when the fire occurred.
“Thankfully, it wasn’t a couple hours earlier. It would have been really chaotic with traffic around the area with the temporary high school and the middle school right here,” he said. “I think the majority of the kids had already gone for the day, so it wasn’t much of an issue.”
Initially the call was for a working fire, which brought three fire engines and two ladder trucks. Shortly after, Tardiff called a second alarm, which sent three more engines and another ladder to the scene.
“We thank our mutual aid partners — Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont — who are all here,” Nicholson said. “And we had some of those same cities covering the City, they cover our stations while we are here.”