BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — A fire apparently caused by a candle has displaced two residents of a Fales Street apartment. No injuries were reported in the Wednesday afternoon incident.

According to Fire Chief Rene Coutu, city fire crews responded to 10 Fales St. following an alarm at about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday. Those crews noticed smoke coming from the second floor.
After knocking down a door, Coutu said, firefighters entered one of the apartments, where they found the source of the fire in a bedroom. Flames were coming from behind a bookcase, with evidence of their origin nearby, Coutu said.
“It looks like (a) votive candle fell down behind the bookcase,” the chief said.
 “The bookcase was on fire and the wall was on fire. We’re lucky we got there when we did, because it would have gotten into the wall.”
Coutu said all of the apartments in the building are habitable except for the one where the fire started. Pending a safety inspection, the mother and son who live there will be displaced for a couple of days. The family has found other accommodations, the chief said.
Coutu credited Pawtucket firefighters for providing station coverage while his crews were busy on Fales Street. With two or three local units under repair, Central Falls borrowed a Lincoln rescue for the incident. According to the chief, the rescues that were out of service will soon need to be retired.
It appeared to firefighters that the candle in question Wednesday was part of a homemade shrine. Such setups have led to disasters, Coutu said, citing a blaze several years ago in which a building directly behind the Fire Department burned down after a lit candle was left in a doorway.
Coutu added that he had come upon a similar situation Wednesday morning, just hours before the Fales Street fire, after firefighters responded to an oven fire on Dexter Street. Upon seeing a candle on the floor, he felt the residents had to be warned about the hazards of this practice in spite of its religious significance.
“We warned them how dangerous they are,” he said. “They can be dangerous if they’re not put out before people leave. They need to either put them out when they leave or put them in something that isn’t combustible.”