A fire ripped through a Route 9 building in Brookline on May 28, 2026, and compressed air tanks inside the East Coast Divers shop on the first floor exploded as crews moved in. One employee suffered minor burns and a firefighter was cut while fighting the blaze.
Mike Williams said he banged on doors and got the upstairs residents out quickly, with only two people upstairs that he knew of at the time. All seven residents in the building have since been displaced, and a cat was rescued from the second floor.
The fire drew fast attention because it struck one of Brookline’s local dive shops at the start of its season, when the business said it has only about three months to make much of its yearly revenue. A customer for the shop started an online fundraiser, and it raised more than $2,000 within hours.
Fire Chief John Sullivan said multiple compressed air cannisters exploded in the flames, but the air in the tanks is only partly oxygen and the exact cause is still being investigated. The fire started in the back area of the shop, leaving investigators with the question that matters most now: what set off the blaze before the tanks went up.
The fire also landed in the middle of a broader public argument over emergency readiness. Massachusetts State Representative Tommy Vitolo said the blaze came soon after Brookline voters approved a budget override earlier in May to keep the fire department fully funded, a move he said people often remember only on days like this.
