Photos/Story by Glenn D. Usdin

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On Sunday, March 10th, Lancaster City, PA Bureau of Fire was dispatched to North Lime and East King Street for a reported building fire with people trapped. The first arriving units were on the scene in minutes and found civilians self rescuing from the building, including one small child who was dropped from an upper floor window into a blanket held by bystanders. First arriving crews assisted the remaining occupants from the structure and began an aggressive interior attack.

The large three story structure contained retail occupancies on the first floor and numerous apartments on the upper floors. Despite blinding smoke, crews made a complete primary search of all of the upper-floor apartments. The sustained winds were over 35 mph, greatly enhancing the spread of fire through numerous void spaces in the old structure. Fire spread in numerous voids between floors and through the upper floor exterior mansard type roof. The interior attack was pulled back so that master streams could knock down the visible fire and then the crews returned to complete extinguishment and a very prolonged overhaul.

City firefighters went to a General Alarm, bringing all on-duty and off-duty shifts to the scene. Mutual aid from surrounding communities of Lancaster Township, Eden, Lafayette, and Southern Manheim fire companies assisted at the scene. The fire was brought under control with just 8 civilans injured, none seriously, and one firefighter injury, also minor. Damage to the block long structure was extensive.

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