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ROXBURY (WBZ NewsRadio) — A five-alarm fire destroyed a century-old home in Roxbury Tuesday morning, leaving a family of nine homeless.
Boston Fire responded to the home on Perrin Street around 9 a.m. to find heavy flames on the second floor. Firefighters were soon ordered out of the building, and set up a "collapse zone" outside of the building.
One resident was injured with burns to their arm. Three of those displaced are children.
A sullen Michael James stood on the sidewalk and watched as the home he grew up in went up in flames.
"This is a loss," he told WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe. "It's a lot of family memories in this house. We've had the house for almost fifty years."
Firefighters battled not only flames and heavy smoke, but also the frigid temperatures, taking extra precautions to prevent slips and falls on ice.
Boston Fire Commissioner Joe Finn estimated the damages to be around $750,000.
"Very difficult conditions," Finn said. "Icing. The fire itself was very difficult. It got into the void spaces and into spaces in the attic that would have made access for us very difficult."
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe ( @KimWBZ ) reports