Utility workers save residents in Abington house fire

ABINGTON — Quick-thinking utility workers may have saved the lives of four residents in a house fire in north Abington Saturday evening.

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, an SUV rolled over and struck a utility pole near the corner of Bedford Street (Route 18) and Clack Street, according to Abington Fire Deputy John Weckbacher. The driver was not injured, but the pole broke.

The road was blocked off for several hours as the workers from Verizon, Comcast and National Grid worked to repair the pole.

At around 7:30 p.m. the workers saw smoke coming out of the top of a house at 982 Bedford St. The workers knocked on the door and told the four people inside to get out.

Firefighters from Abington, with the help of departments in Holbrook, Whitman and Rockland, knocked the fire down in about an hour. No one was injured, and Weckbacher credited the utility workers for their action.

“They probably saved their lives,” he said.

Fire officials had not determined a cause of the fire as of Saturday night.