The likely cause of the massive fire that destroyed several buildings in downtown Nantucket, including the historic Veranda House hotel, this weekend has been revealed.
The blaze on Saturday is believed to have been started by improperly disposed smoking materials, state and local authorities said Monday. The fire began where trash was stored, under the front porch.
"We're extremely fortunate that everyone made it out safely, and I want to recognize the heroic efforts of community members whose immediate action under dangerous conditions helped to save lives," Nantucket Fire Chief Stephen Murphy said in a statement.
State Fire Marshal Ostroskey noted that smoking materials, like cigarette butts, "are the leading cause of fatal fires."
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The fire began about 6:45 a.m., "when many guests were likely still asleep," Murphy said. The three-story, 18-room Veranda House hotel was totally destroyed, along with the two other buildings that the fire spread to. The fire wasn't extinguished until about 8 p.m.
Everyone made it out from the fire, thanks, in part, to the efforts of a Boston man.
Peter Georgantas was on a walk in Nantucket Saturday just before 7 a.m. when he saw the smoke from the other side of town and decided to run towards the fire.
"When I got there, there were already flames coming out the windows," he said of the historic building.
For those on Step Lane, that bright morning was eclipsed by smoke, fuming from the Veranda House Hotel and two homes next door.
Georgantas' instinct told him he needed to go in and get people out.
"I was yelling, 'Fire,' banging on the doors, and then when I went upstairs, there was heavy smoke on the second floor, down in into the hallway," he said. "So I tried to go as far down as I could, and heard people saying, 'I'm over here. I'm over here.'"
Georgantas encountered an off-duty firefighter at the scene. They both continued to rescue guests from the burning hotel. At one point, Georgantas couldn't see his hand in front of him because of all the smoke. He managed to get out in time despite being disoriented, hoping he had saved people’s lives.
"There was no fire or police there and no one else was doing anything but taking their cellphones out, taking videos," he said, recalling the moment before he decided to rush into the building. "It was early in the morning, and I knew there would be people sleeping in there."
Fifteen minutes passed between the time he called 911 and when firefighters arrived, he said. By then, the 17th-century building was in ruins.
Four firefighters were taken to the hospital after the blaze, but all have been released, officials said Monday.
Georgantas said before he sprung into action, he thought of a headline he reads everyday from a newspaper cutout pinned on a cork board his workout room at home. It reads, "In Boston they run to, not from," referring to the Boston Marathon bombings.
"I look at that every day since the marathon bombing," he said.
By the time Georgantas exited the hotel, the fire had engulfed the building. Immediately after rescuing guests at the burning hotel, Georgantas went straight to boot camp that same morning.
Several fire departments — Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills, Dennis, Harwich, Hyannis, Sandwich and Yarmouth — sent teams by ferry Sunday to help relieve the small Nantucket Fire Department.
That was some of the help from across the Cape and Islands that Nantucket police issued thanks for Sunday.
The extensive damage caused the Veranda House and the nearby Chapman House hotel, both run by the Nantucket Resort Collection, to close, the organization said in a statement over the weekend.
"If you have an existing reservation that will be affected (currently through July) we will contact you soon," according to the Nantucket Resort Collection.
