PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Crews worked a two-alarm fire Monday afternoon at a duplex on North Street in the Olde Towne section of Portsmouth.
Dispatchers said the call for the fire in the 400 block, near Court Street, came in at 3:14 p.m.
The 107-year-old property housing two townhomes at 417 and 419 North St. oozed smoke into the early evening.
“The smoke was probably 8 or 10 feet above the house,” said Josh Wynn.
Wynn lives directly across the street and had just come home from work when his apartment started to smell like smoke.
“I saw the flames coming up from the third floor and then the firetrucks came and did their thing,” Wynn explained.
Hours later, firefighters continued spraying the multi-family property.
“There’s only like a foot of gap between the two houses so they had one guy the whole time shooting water in that little crack between the house so the flames wouldn’t come out and get in through the windows of the other house beside it,” Wynn said.
Other neighbors watched the scene unfold from their balconies and rooftops.
There are no reports of injuries, and the fire has not spread to adjacent properties. Red Cross representatives were on scene helping those displaced find accommodations for the night.
