Swampscott Helps Battle Fire in Downtown Marblehead [VIDEO]

Firefighters extinguished a fire that broke out at Bang Tin Art Gallery, 124 Pleasant St., Thursday afternoon.

The fire was reported around 4 p.m. and is believed to have originated somewhere in the basement, Fire Chief Jason Gilliland said.

Fire Capt. Michael Porter said local fire crews did great work battling what proved to be a difficult fire in spite of extremely harsh weather conditions.

Swampscott sent an engine to the single-alarm fire and provided station back-up with their ladder truck at the Swampscott Fire Station, said Swampscott fire Capt. Remo Zimbaldi.

A crew of Swampscott firefighters worked above the first floor cutting into walls and chasing down fire through voids in the circa 1900 building's walls.

Marblehead fire did a nice job knocking down the fire and preventing flames from spreading above, he said.

This was the second fire the Swampscott department has helped fight in the past three days of frigid weather. On Tuesday they helped battle a blaze in Lynn. 

The Bang Tin Metal Art gallery occupies the first floor of the building and the second and third floors are separate housing units.

It is unclear whether there were people in the building when the fire broke out but there were no reported injuries.

Marblehead police officers temporarily shut down the area from Washington to School streets while firefighters extinguished the fire.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Porter said.

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