LAWRENCE - It took just four minutes for city fire officials to realize they would need all the help they could get to put out the blaze that burned down a block in South Lawrence early last Monday.

In that short period, the first alarm at 2:35 a.m. escalated into a third alarm - which automatically triggered the call for firefighters and trucks from Andover, Lowell, Methuen and North Andover.

In all, 14 trucks and 46 firefighters from 13 departments responded to the Lawrence Fire Department's call for help with the seven-alarm blaze. Officials consider this the biggest response to a Lawrence residential fire in recent memory.

The city's 60 firefighters and eight trucks would not have been enough to battle this horrific fire on their own, Lawrence Fire Chief Peter Takvorian believes.

"Without this mutual aid responding, we could have been talking about blocks going up - not just one block - and there would have been loss of life," Takvorian speculated.

Takvorian counted his department's blessings last Friday when he showed up at Fire Alarm Headquarters on Bodwell Street in the city's Tower Hill section to explain the mechanics of fighting a seven-alarm fire.

The chief was preparing to write 13 "thank you" letters - one to each of the fire chiefs that sent firefighters and trucks to help extinguish the blaze that destroyed or damaged 14 buildings, caused more than $4 million in property damage and displaced close to 200 people from their homes.

"I wanted to let them know how important it was to send their companies to our city," Takvorian said.

"They had to go out in single digit temperatures with gusty winds that made for a wind chill factor below zero. This was no cake walk. They came in and had to work under difficult conditions. If it was just Lawrence trying to deal with the fire alone, we would have been lost. The people of this city should be grateful," the chief said.

Mutual aid is a standard practice of collaboration among fire departments. When one department needs help or to backup coverage at a firehouse, it puts out a call to area cities and towns.

Bud Dorgan, superintendent of fire alarms at the Lawrence Fire Department, was there on Friday to give me the nickel tour of the system at the two-story brick building that serves as the central command post for all city fires.

The guts of the operation, of course, are the radio communications system and the fire dispatchers that field emergency calls and communicate with the commanders in the field.

It's the fire incident commander - usually one of the deputy chiefs - who determines what the particular manpower and equipment needs are in fighting a fire, and that determines how many alarms will be sounded from the Bodwell Street station.

On the third alarm, every available firefighter, fire engine and ladder truck is called to the scene. At that point, four area fire departments - Andover, Lowell, Methuen and North Andover - are called in to staff station houses throughout the city. They are also standing by for deployment to the main fire scene as needed, usually when the fourth alarm is sounded. Fire crews from Dracut, Haverhill, Middleton and Salem, N.H. will be called in at that point to provide station coverage.

"As each alarm sounds, people covering the stations go to the fire and new people come in to man the stations, Dorgan said.

If certain fire departments don't have trucks and firefighters available for mutual aid on a particular fire, Fire Alarm Headquarters goes down the list to find a replacement and make the necessary call.

Ironically, Takvorian said the mutual aid system, which he believes proved to be a lifesaver in last week's fire, was nearly compromised in the midst of a budget battle being waged at City Hall.

Takvorian was prepared to see the city shut down two firehouses and layoff 20 firefighters had the City Council not agreed to raise taxes and water and sewer fees at last Tuesday night's meeting.

"If we had lost the two engine houses, that would have been devastating for our mutual aid system," Takvorian said.

"Out-of-town companies wouldn't report to our engine houses anymore," he said, recalling an alarming situation that had developed in the midst of budget cuts, layoffs and station closures of years past.

"Thankfully, the City Council approved each of the motions and we didn't lose two engine houses," Takvorian said.

That the council vote was close and took five hours to pass - on the night after Lawrence suffered its worse residential fire - illustrates how public officials tend to take mutual aid for granted or aren't very knowledgeable of its importance to communities like Lawrence.

"People need to know that mutual aid made a very big difference in this fire and probably prevented us from having a real tragedy here," the chief said.

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Staff writer Mark E. Vogler writes Milling Around each week for the Sunday Eagle-Tribune. He can be reached at 978-946-2291 or mvogler@eagletribune.com.

Answering the Call

Here's a chronology of how 13 area Fire Departments responded to last week's seven-alarm fire in Lawrence and what vehicles they brought.

First Alarm: 2:35 a.m.

Second Alarm: 2:38 a.m.

Third Alarm: 2:39 a.m. Andover (pump), Lowell (ladder truck), Methuen (pump) and North Andover (pump) report to fire scene.

Fourth Alarm: 2:49 a.m. Dracut (pump), Haverhill (pump), Middleton (pump), and Salem, N.H. (ladder truck) called in.

Fifth Alarm: 4:10 a.m. Chelmsford (ladder truck), Georgetown (pump, covered Central Station), Reading (pump), Tewksbury (pump)

Sixth Alarm: 4:11 a.m. 5:31 a.m. Groveland (pump) covered Central Station

Seventh Alarm: Wasn't actually sounded. But officials called the fire response "the equivalent of a seven alarm fire." 8:01 a.m. Salem, N.H. (pump)

Information provided by the Lawrence Fire Department