More than a dozen people were displaced by the fire, according to tenants, who escaped without serious injury.
Peabody Police Chief Steven Pasdon said Rice was clad in full protective gear, but “met heavy and eventually overwhelming” conditions.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rice family,” he said.
Pasdon said the investigation had not discovered any wiring or electrical problems that may have caused the fire, but a tenant, Annelly Guerrido, 34 told the Globe Friday night that an outlet in her bedroom blew a fuse and sparked a flame that set her quilt on fire. She could not put it out and alerted neighbors, who fled to safety.
The state’s top fire union official, Edward A. Kelly, today called Rice “a hero” in a phone interview and said he was caught in what is known as a “flashover,” a condition in which an area is engulfed in flames.
Two other firefighters had barely made it down the stairs, he said, but Rice was trapped on the second floor, trying to douse flames to search the area for possible survivors.
“They encountered extremely heavy fire conditions in an occupied building,” said Kelly, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, which represents 12,000 firefighters across the state, including Rice. “We took an oath to risk our lives for people. That’s what we do for a living. We’ve got to assume that someone’s in there. That’s what they were doing. They were trying to knock that fire down.”
Kelly said Rice had missed work at one point in his career for health reasons, which he would not discuss, but Rice had been cleared by doctors to return to active duty. Kelly said he believes the prior health issue condition had nothing to do with his death.
“For us to go to work, doctors have to OK it,” he said. “The chief can’t decide. You can’t decide. It’s got to be people with the letters next to their names.”
Pasdon declined at today’s news conference to comment on whether Rice had missed work because of health issues.
“I’m not here to speak about medical conditions,” Pasdon said.
An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death.
