City Employee Helps Woman to Safety in Wharf Condo Fire

By Phil Orlandella

A 19-year veteran of the city’s Transportation Department, Jay Richards was “Johnny on the Spot” while on duty in the North End, when a fire broke out on the 6th floor of a Burroughs Wharf condo.

The assistant parking enforcement supervisor ran down Battery Street, where he was knocking on doors, telling people to move their vehicles for the annual Saint Agrippina di Mineo feast later that evening.

He, along with firefighters from the Harbor Unit, which operates out of the building, maintenance staff, began banging on doors telling other residents that there was a fire in the structure.

Strapping the woman to a chair, they managed to get her down six flights of stairs to safety.

Ironically, Richards was the only person who wound up needing medical treatments after his asthma acted up and he was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he was eventually released.

Firefighters determined the cause of the two-alarm fire was caused by spontaneous combustion of an adhesive left on the roof of the building.

The woman has returned to her condo.