Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

HOPKINTON, RI -- Residents in an elderly housing complex who were displaced by a fire yesterday are back home this morning, according to a representative of Canonchet Cliffs II.

Some 50 people were evacuated when a fire broke out yesterday afternoon in the 55-unit complex.

Fire officials said the fire started when an elderly woman turned on her electric oven, not realizing a portable radio was inside the oven, releasing elevated levels of hydrogen cyanide.

About 30 people, mostly firefighters, were taken to area hospitals -- Westerly, South County, Kent, and Rhode Island Hospital -- yesterday afternoon to be treated for smoke inhalation. Hope Valley-Wyoming Fire Lt. William Day, who is on the Chariho Regional School Committee and is its former chairman, was kept overnight for observation due to an irregular heartbeat. He was released today.

The woman in whose apartment the fire started is staying with her daughter.

 Tags  fire oven fire

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