This picture was taken early in the afternoon the same day the fire occurred, on April 24, 1998. The first shift of the fire department took care of fighting the fire, and the second shift boarded everything up and cleaned up the nasty mess.
The big boarded area just above the car is the vestibule where Asswipe set the fire. See the two windows on the first floor to the left of the vestibule, the ones with the white shades? That's my apartment. That window closest to the vestibule was where I was sitting when the fire was set. You can see a little dark spot in the lower half of the right hand side of that window - that's where the shade started melting.
The fire pretty much progressed from the vestibule straight up to the second floor. The person on the second floor of the right hand side of the house lost everything, including his fish :-( He made it out of the apartment with his shorts and a sweater. He was eventually able to retrieve his wallet, but everything else was gone. He had just finished painting a room yellow - it was black after the fire.
The fire department appeared to limit the fire to the roof and the second floor quickly, but it seemed like every time they doused flames in one area, another part of the roof was on fire. All in all, it took them about 2 to 3 hours to put out the fire. According to the local Lowell newspaper, one firefighter was injured.
The guy in the apartment just above mine was able to recover some things, but there was a lot of damage in his place, too. The neighbors behind that apartment (in the back of the house) lost almost everything. The neighbor on the left hand side of the house had almost no damage, and the other people on the first floor suffered some water and smoke damage, but it wasn't as bad as my place.
Now let's take a look at the steps.