Quick action by a resident and Nashua firefighters kept an apartment fire at bay in downtown Nashua on Tuesday.

Lorena Barrientos said she was home making lunch in her apartment, which is adjacent to Bella Variety, a market she said her parents own.

"I was upstairs in my apartment. I was cooking pizza for me and my boyfriend," she said Tuesday while standing outside of Bella Variety as firefighters gathered up equipment and rolled hoses.

"I thought I was setting off the fire detector," she said. "I looked down, and there was a bunch of black smoke." Alarms sounded, she said.

"I came outside and saw the smoke coming out the windows," she said of the first-floor apartment below hers. She then called 911.

Nashua Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Brian Rhodes said firefighters from the Amherst Street station were first to arrive and confirmed smoke and fire.

Firefighters "determined they had a working fire on floor
No. 1. They searched the building, and we found there were no occupants inside," Rhodes said.

"There were no injuries to report, thank goodness."

Nashua’s health department had to respond to the blaze, he said, because smoke had permeated the convenience store. It remained closed while firefighters and investigators worked and Chestnut Street was. Onlookers gathered nearby to watch the activity.

An investigation is ongoing.

Don Himsel can be reached at 594-6590, dhimsel@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DonH.