17 Families Lose Homes To Thanksgiving Fires: Red Cross

Fires like the ones in Lowell and Lynn forced 17 families from their homes on Thanksgiving, the Red Cross said. The organization tended to some 70 people throughout Thursday.

Firefighters battled the flames in frigid, icy conditions as wind chills had temperatures in the low teens feeling like they were a few ticks below zero.

"It was a very difficult night to fight a fire this large," Lowell Fire Chief Jeffrey Winward told The Boston Globe. That fire, which spread over three buildings on Arthur and Shaw streets Thursday evening, cost 25 people their home.

"Extreme cold and wind created many problems - frozen hydrants, frozen hose lines, frozen ladder pipes, the entire neighborhood was covered in ice, apparatus were covered in ice, and firefighters were covered in ice," Winward said.

Seventeen more people were displaced when a fire ripped through a three-family Grover Street home in Lynn. The century-old home had just been purchased by one of the tenants in June, the Lynn Item reported.

Red Cross photos of Lowell fire