BEVERLY — Police, firefighters and paramedics had a busy start to the Fourth of July holiday this week.
Crews responded to three incidents yesterday, long before any actual fireworks started.
The first thing in the morning, a piece of equipment used to process photos at Walgreens malfunctioned and caught fire, forcing everyone out of the Elliott Street pharmacy.
Fire Capt. Peter O'Connor said a plastic casing ignited shortly before 7 a.m. and filled the store with "acrid" smoke.
"The machine works with water coils to condition water for photo processing systems," O'Connor said. "Firefighters used a dry chemical extinguisher to knock down the fire, which was confined to a small area in a utility closet."
The cause of the malfunction is not known, and the store remained closed for about two hours. There were no injuries.
Several hours later, a two-vehicle crash on Rantoul Street sent one person to Beverly Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver of an H3 Hummer was taken to the hospital following the crash at 11:30 a.m. The other driver was not injured and remained at the scene.
Engine 3 was sent to the scene and ensured the vehicles were safe by disconnecting the battery of the other, more significantly damaged vehicle and spreading Speedi Dry over fluids pouring out of the front end of that car, the make and model of which were not specified.
Crews were tied up at the scene for approximately 40 minutes. Engine 3 responded since Engine 1 was covering the Danvers Fire Department while they fought a fire, O'Connor said. Engine 5 was tied up with Deputy Chief Paul Cotter at a vehicle leaking gasoline on Cabot Street.
Wednesday was just as busy for police. That's when a resident called at 2:50 p.m. to say a man was breaking into a house at 24 West Dane St.
Patrolmen Jeffrey Tache and Eugene Bettencourt and Sgt. Michael Devlin arrived at the scene and discovered the front door to an apartment was forced open, with significant damage to the door frame.
Police called for more help and then began searching inside. They found Daniel T. Sigman, 31, of Peabody in the kitchen area. A police spokesman, Patrolman John McCarthy, said Sigman was not the "lawful resident."
Tache charged Sigman with breaking and entering in the daytime, possession of the painkiller oxycodone, and receiving stolen property.
