Firefighters battled a two-alarm fire at 129 Barbour Street in Hartford early this morning and investigators, including the police department major crimes unit, are now looking into what started it.
The fire started around 3 a.m. and firefighters arrived to find flames engulfing the second floor of the building, which houses Big Star Market, a sandwich shop and barber shop, and those flames were spreading.
Bonita Arnold, a neighbor in Hartford, said the light through her window woke her up.
I just screamed, 'Oh my God.' It was totally like an inferno,” she said. “I called and said, 'Get someone out here quick, fast, in a hurry, hurry.' My fear was, if this place blew, it was going to affect this building as well as the other building across the street.”
No one was injured and the fire chief said the apartment above the businesses was not occupied.
Around 60 firefighters responded and crews used a ladder to fight the fire from above.
One issue to complicate the battle was the presence of power lines.
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"On arrival, the fire was impinging on power lines directly in front of the building, so we had to set up an exclusionary zone, even for the fire personnel, until Eversource could come out and secure the power," Deputy Chief James Mcloughlin, of the Hartford Fire Department, said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and the Hartford Police major crimes unit responded.
