A carpenter sliced through large wooden boards, and another worker slid them into place over burned-out windows of this building on Hanover Street.
A three-alarm blaze erupted on Wednesday, and smoke filled the North End. Two men died, one in the building itself and another after jumping from a third-floor window. Firefighters helped rescue 12 others. A man named Mark, who preferred not to give his last name, runs a convenience store on the ground floor. He’s a life-long North End resident and knew one of the men who perished.
“I've known him since I've had the store,” said Mark.
One of his regular customers was back the next day purchasing lottery tickets and shouting out her lucky numbers. Mark said he considers himself lucky — or more than lucky — that his store did not go up in flames, like a sizable portion of the building above him.
“There was a kid hanging out the window in the front, but the ladder got there just in time for him to come out, because they could see the smoke behind him," said Mark.
With a wall of multi-colored cigarette packages behind him, Mark reflected, without irony, on what fire officials believe to be the cause of the three-alarm blaze.
“This is due to smoking, I guess, is what they said," he said.
In front of a cafe, a group of men who grew up in the North End looked toward the boarded-up structure. Most opted to keep their thoughts to themselves, but one man shared his.
“Businesses can be replaced, buildings can be replaced," he said. "When you lose a human life, especially around the holidays, it's really, just sad.”
Another resident would only say that "life in the North End goes on,” as work crews swept away glass and ashes — and carpenters installed the last wooden panels on the damaged building.
