Steve Douglass returned to Greenfield Street in Hartford to see his home up in flames. Thursday evening, a fire started and quickly left a path of destruction. Everyone, including his mother and his two dogs, got out of the house in time.
"I'm thankful nobody got hurt. The house can be replaced, lives can't," said Douglass.
Fire officials say the fire appears to have started in a second floor kitchen. It looks like the tenant had a stove fire, tried to put it out with water, and it became a more serious grease fire.
Fighting that grease fire was complicated even more when a nearby fire hydrant froze.
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"It was important at that time we had our second and third due companies back them up with their own hydrants as part of procedure, and it paid dividends in this particular call," said Captain Ronald Chance of the Hartford Fire Department.
That wasn't the only obstacle. The water quickly freezing on the roads made it difficult for firefighters to get around. One firefighter was injured, but not from the ice. He was hit in the face with a water stream from one of the hoses.
The building is heavily damaged. None of the six people living there will be able to go back home.
