Apr. 20—NEW LONDON — A fire at a Green Street business Thursday afternoon sent smoke so thick through neighboring buildings that some tenants in State Street apartments had to be rescued by firefighters.
New London Fire Chief Thomas Curcio said firefighters were dispatched at 3:17 for a call that was immediately upgraded to a two-alarm fire. The majority of the fire was contained to the roof of 15 Green Street, which a sign out front identified as Get It Twisted by Shekina.
Five neighbors were displaced from three occupied apartments situated above the Swad Tandoori, an Indian restaurant at 150 State St. Curcio said some of them had to be led out of the front of the building by firefighters when the back stairwell they were trying to leave through on Green Street filled with smoke.
Four tenants from the State Street building were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation but declined to go to the hospital, Curcio said.
Curcio said firefighters cut into the roof over the apartments as they searched for fire that had been spreading into the walls.
Curcio said the Get it Twisted building was locked and there was nobody in it when the fire started. The cause is unknown.
He did not know the extent of the damage inside or if there were chemicals or hair products in the building at the time.
It took about a half hour to get the fire under control, according to the fire chief.
On the other side of the building, Dutch Tavern was temporarily closed while firefighters helped evacuate the smoke from the iconic bar. There was also heavy smoke in the back entrance of the former State Street Saloon, a narrow space between The Dutch and 15 Green Street.
Johnny Harris, one of the tenants who received treatment for smoke inhalation, said he'd been asleep and breathing in smoke without knowing it before his girlfriend woke him up with news of the fire. He was receiving oxygen and getting his vitals taken by emergency responders on State Street around 4 p.m.
Harris said the smoke and his existing case of COPD made it hard for him to breathe.
"You can still see the particles everywhere," he said of the ash in the air even after the fire was under control.
Onlookers watched from the sidewalk behind fire trucks and ambulances from New London, Waterford, Poquonnock Bridge, Groton and the Naval Submarine Base. The block was closed on State Street between Eugene O'Neill Drive and Union Street.
Brianna Clements, owner of The Babe Cave on State Street, said she first smelled the smoke from inside her building. She was on her way out when she saw other business owners and workers in the area screaming for everyone to get out.