By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

​ADAMS, Mass. — Five fire companies responded to a structure fire on Richmond Street on Thursday morning that gutted the apartment building. 
 
The second floor of the century-old building at 16-18 Richmond was fully involved when firefighters arrived shortly after 9:30 a.m. 
 
Everyone was reported out of the building and no one was injured. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were affected. 
 
It was the smoke from the fire that could be seen across town and from as far as Curran Highway in North Adams that alerted first-responders. 
 
"I was actually driving downtown when I looked over and saw heavy smoke," said Fire Chief John Pansecchi. "I pulled up and the house was  already fully involved, every window had smoke. We've basically been on the attack since we got here."
 
Richmond is one of several steep and narrow streets on the east side of Summer Street. Firefighters from Adams, North Adams, Cheshire, Dalton and Savoy responded to the scene. With some difficulty, Adams and North Adams bracketed the building with ladder trucks on Richmond and even narrower Clifford Lane to get to hotspots within the building. 
 
A vacant two-story residence at 10 Richmond next to the fire was used to run a line to get to the fire from the side. Power was cut off to the neighborhood, "leaving a lot of turkeys in the oven," said one neighbor, who was preparing to put his own pies in the oven when the power went out.
 
National Grid was at the scene to aid in moving wires and Adams Police  blocked off Summer from Hoosac Street to Winter Street. 
 
The nearly 7,000 square-foot structure is listed as a three-apartment building and owned by Richard and Sandra Kleiner, according to town documents. Pansecchi said the building was fully occupied. A smaller unit at basement level was being used as a short-term rental and the occupant, from Canada, was worried about getting her identification documents out. 
 
By about 11:30 a.m., the fire was contained but hotspots were still sending smoke into the air. The entire attic was gone and the second story and front facade were a charred mess. 
 
"We've got the bulk of the fire knocked down and we're trying to hit some hotspots now," said the chief.
 
Pansecchi said cause wasn't known but an investigator from state fire marshal's office was already on the scene and the chief said he appreciated the fast response, especially on a holiday. The investigator was speaking to tenants and the owners.
 
"This is a great effort by everybody here," Pansecchi said. "These guys all did a great job. They worked their tails off to get this under control."

​Additional photos here.

The 6th annual Golf Ball Drop Fundraiser went off Sunday at Bowe field. Congratulations to all of the winners who will be contacted directly! This annual event is helping the Alerts fundraise for our upcoming 150th anniversary celebration in 2026. Thank you to all you help support this worthwhile event.

By Brian Rhodes
iBerkshires Staff
11:28AM / Friday, September 09, 2022

ADAMS, Mass. — Following July's second annual Adams Street Fair, the Adams Street Fair Committee has donated a total of $6,800 to the town's four first-responder organizations. 

The committee presented checks, each worth $1,700, to the Adams Police Department, Alert Hose Company, Adams Forest Wardens and Adams Ambulance at Wednesday's Board of Selectmen meeting. An additional $500 donation went to Williamstown-based charity PopCares, which supports cancer patients in Northern Berkshire County and Southern Vermont.

"It was quite hot this year, but for the amount of people that came out, we were very pleased," said Joseph Martin, chair of the Adams Street Fair Committee. "Everyone had a great time. All the vendors had a great time and we had no big issues." 

Police Chief K. Scott Kelley thanked the committee for the work it put into the fair. He also thanked the community for supporting the event. 

"Your committee's generosity is well noted and this is unbelievable," he said. "And as we did last year, we're going to earmark this for something that will not only better our community, but our police department." 

Board Vice Chair Christine Hoyt thanked the first responders present at the fair, who she said were able to provide free water to attendees to help with the heat. 

"A wonderful job, Joe, by you and your entire committee," she said. "It was nice to see you, in the end, come back this year and talk about being a bigger event. And wow, it really was a much bigger event."

In other business, Town Administrator Jay Green updated the board on the Howland Avenue resurfacing project, noting preliminary work had begun. He said the state Department of Transportation still anticipates work to be mostly, if not entirely, complete in the Fall. 

"We're hoping that, at a minimum, we'll have a base coat for the Fall to get us through the Winter, with a final coat in the spring," he said. "But as of today, they do anticipate doing the entire project sometime this Fall, so we're still on track for that. We'll keep everybody informed." 

Green also provided updates on ongoing work on Commercial Street, which he said should be mostly complete by October. A smaller road project on Cook Street, which Green said will be done primarily in-house by the Department of Public Works, should also begin sometime in October. 

Green mentioned the controlled intersection at the center of Commercial Street will now have an infrared-based detecting system above ground. He said this system should work better than the original plan for the intersection, a pressure-based system installed under the road. 

"We're using approximately $30,000 worth of chapter 90 money to have that reengineered and redesigned and rebuilt that will be a better way to control that intersection numbers and not risk opening up the roadway," he said. 

The board approved facility use and one-day liquor and entertainment licenses for Ramblefest, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9. 

The board approved the appointment of Natasha Bordeaux to the Agricultural Commission. Bordeaux is also a member of the Conservation Commission. 

Courtesy The Berkshire Eagle 
By Greta Jochem, May 28, 2022 
​
ADAMS — A fire at an apartment building on 27 Rear Commercial St. in Adams in the early hours of Saturday damaged the building but did not injure any residents.

Around 1 a.m., Adams Fire Department got a report of the fire, said Assistant Chief Dave Lennon.

North Adams Fire Department, Cheshire Fire Department and Savoy Fire Department were on scene to help, while the Clarksburg Fire Department covered the Adams Fire Department station, Lennon said.

When firefighters arrived, fire was coming out of the windows and although it took "quite some time," the fire was under control by around 2 a.m., Lennon said.

None of the residents were injured, according to Lennon. One child in the building was on a ventilator and was helped out of the building safely.

Fire damage was contained to the apartment unit where the fire started, but residents have to stay elsewhere while the building is being evaluated, according to Lennon. “Everybody that was in that apartment building found alternate placement to live right now," he said.

Officials are looking into the cause of the blaze. "At this point it's not suspicious," Lennon said, "but it's still under investigation.”

Tuesday night's drill was an air pack refresher. Topics include (re)familiarization with our Scott X3 Air-Paks, the Pak-Tracker and the RIT-Pak Fast Attack kit. Prior to a hands-on period, members viewed a page (shown below) created to bring all of this information together in one place.