‘Making me cry inside’: Business owner devastated after raging fire guts North Shore shopping plaza

A cleanup and an investigation are underway after a massive fire tore through a shopping plaza on the North Shore on Tuesday night.

The blaze at the shops at Post Office Square in Lynnfield quickly grew into a raging inferno, even though the fire department was just a hundred yards away. About a half dozen businesses were damaged or destroyed.

“So much hard work is gone within two hours and now I’m looking at it and it’s making me cry inside,” Old Towne Market co-owner Mohammed Oheduzzamann said.

One of the co-owners of Old Towne Market is still in disbelief over how his family-run store for the last 12 years. It was among the several businesses overcome by smoke and flames.

“Everything happened so quickly. It was like 10 to 15 minutes and they tried so hard, but it was unstoppable and everything was on fire,” Oheduzzamann said.

Lynnfield Fire Chief Glenn Davis said shortly after all of the businesses closed, one of the workers got an alert from the alarm company and ran over to the fire department.

“Somebody was knocking on the front door of the fire station, the guys stuck their head out, and we had fire through the roof at that point, so it got pretty far ahead of us pretty quickly,” Davis explained.

Davis said because the fire was already so intense, he called for help, and companies from as far as Boxford, Revere, and Chelsea rushed to the scene. One of the reasons he believes it grew so quickly is because gas lines were fueling the flames.

“We couldn’t get to the shut-offs to the rear of the building because there was such heavy fire involvement in the back, so we had to wait for the gas company to shut down the gas to the entire complex out at the street,” Davis said.

After the flames were out and the smoke dissipated, the reality set in for business owners. The owners of the Old Towne Market are heartbroken but thankful that only materials, not lives, were lost.

“This is pretty much like more than home for us,” Oheduzzamann said. “Money, come and go, we’re lucky nobody got hurt everybody is safe. As long we are healthy, God’s blessing, we can make it back again it’s just a matter of time.”

Davis said he doesn’t believe the fire is suspicious but it’s still too early to tell.

The building inspector is determining whether any of this is salvageable and the State Fire Marshal is investigating what caused the blaze.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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