Update: Four alarm fire on Cranberry Highway in Onset

A fire charred most of the interior of a commercial building on Cranberry Highway Jan. 5, destroying several stores.

At 11:38 a.m., the Onset Fire Department received an alarm for the building at 3086 Cranberry Highway in Onset which houses Wreckless Hobbies, Rent-A-Center and Not Your Average Antiques.

Smoke was pouring out of the building when firefighters arrived and Onset Assistant Fire Chief Howard Andersen said first responders had “zero visibility" as they entered the still burning stores.

Anderson described the inside of the building as a “heavy heat condition” and said the cold weather and wind fanned the flames, making the blaze more challenging to extinguish.

One firefighter sustained an injury during the response. The firefighter was treated at Tobey Hospital and released later the same day. The cause of the fire is still under investigation at this time.

Owner of Not Your Average Antiques, Chris Lavelle posted on Facebook around 12 p.m. that his store was on fire.

“My business is gone! What a nightmare,” Lavelle wrote. “Please say a prayer for me. I am going to be starting my business all over again.”

Due to the fire’s severity, alarms were sent out to other departments in the area for assistance at the scene and over 60 firefighters across seven departments arrived to support the Onset crew.

After the fire was extinguished, firefighters worked to mitigate the danger caused by a large quantity of lithium ion batteries in Wreckless Hobbies, which sells remote controlled cars, planes and other battery powered devices.

"Anytime lithium ion batteries are exposed to high heat or submerged in water, it can cause a reaction that makes the batteries continue to burn," said Andersen. "We identified which batteries were damaged or exposed to high heat or water, removed them from the building and removed them from the site."

Onset emergency services were assisted by first responders from Wareham, Marion, Middleboro, Carver, Plymouth, Sandwich and Providence, Rhode Island. Firefighters stayed on the scene until it was cleared at 9:30 p.m.

"I would like to commend all personnel that responded on scene," said Andersen. "The first arriving crews did a commendable job with the conditions that we found on arrival. It presented a difficult situation but they did a good job and worked aggressively to get to the fire and attack it."