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2 adults, 1 child hospitalized after Charlestown apartment fire

Boston fire officials responded to a fire that broke out at an apartment building early Sunday morning in Charlestown.Boston Fire Department (custom credit)/Boston Fire Department/Twitter

Two adults and a child were hurt after a lit candle caused an early morning fire that engulfed a Housing Authority apartment in Charlestown Sunday, according to the Boston fire department.

The blaze had overtaken the second-floor apartment of 45 Tufts St., with flames coming out the front and back of the building when firefighters arrived at about 1:30 a.m., according to Brian Alkins, a spokesman for the Boston fire department.

It was not clear if the three injured were in the apartment that caught fire, and their relationship was not known, he said in a brief phone interview. The extent of their injuries was also not known, he said.

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The fire, which took about 40 minutes to extinguish was deemed an “unintentional fire caused by a candle,” Alkins said.

Approximately eight people were displaced by the blaze, which was confined to the four rooms of the second-floor apartment and is estimated to have caused about $500,000 in damage, Alkins said.

Officials from the Red Cross of Massachusetts and the Boston Housing Authority were helping the displaced residents with housing, the fire department said in a tweet said.




The building, which is owned by Boston Housing Authority and was built in 1940, according to city records, appears to be a three-story brick building.

It was not clear if the apartment had working smoke detectors.



Amanda Kaufman can be reached at amanda.kaufman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandakauf1.