BUFFALO, N.Y. — Fire crews responded to a two alarm fire early Friday morning in South Buffalo and the Buffalo Fire Department is looking into whether fireworks may have played a role.
A house on the corner on Hillside Avenue at Dismonda Street, near Cazenovia Park, went up in flames Friday. Crews responded to the scene just after 4:30 a.m.
Residents on Hillside Avenue say they heard and saw fireworks going off for well over an hour early Friday morning.
Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo told 2 On Your Side, "We strongly suspect fireworks were involved. There were witness statements saying there were two groups firing roman candles at each other. There was a significant amount of firework debris found in the area, and neighbors pretty much confirmed there was a lot of firework activity in the area at the time."
The commissioner also said that they are reviewing security footage near the scene as part of the investigation.
The fire caused a partial collapse of the roof, but everyone was able to make it out safely. Damage is set at $215,000. A home at 40 Hillside suffered $30,000 in exposure damage.
"The fireworks from what we understand were all from the outside flying fireworks obviously roman candles, bottle rockets things of that nature all illegal of course we all know that of course, the only thing pretty much legal are sparklers," Renaldo said.
Loretta Jackson lives in that home next to where the fire started. She says she's lived there for 15 years, and she is very upset that this happened.
Jackson and her three kids had to rush out of their home because of the flames.
"I'm very upset about it because the man lost his whole home and we were just blessed not to lose ours I can't say they wanted to burn it I would hope they did not want to burn it but they absolutely did burn it," Jackson said.
Buffalo police say they've received more than 1,100 fireworks complaints over the last month.
Buffalo Fire say they'll have additional crews ready to go for the Fourth of July weekend.
