Two city firefighters were injured in a two-alarm fire that displaced six occupants of three row houses in the 1100 block of Birch Street on Thursday morning, officials said.
Crews were dispatched shortly after 5 for a report of a kitchen fire at 1138 Birch St., a midblock row house on the narrow street near 13th and Robeson streets, one block from Northeast Middle School, Second Deputy Chief William I. Stoudt Jr. said.
The two firefighters who were taken to Reading Hospital were part of the initial attack on the fire, said Stoudt, who declined to provide their names. One of them suffered burns and the other appeared to have symptoms of exhaustion, he said.
Flames were shooting from the rear of the first and second floors and were spreading to an adjacent building when firefighters arrived. The occupants were safely out of the home, but firefighters did a search to make sure no one was inside.
Stoudt called for a second alarm to draw additional personnel to help contain the fire, which threatened to run the length of the row of at least a dozen homes. All 18 on-duty firefighters and three medic units responded, as did Mount Penn Fire Company volunteers.
To contain the fire, firefighters needed to battle the flames from inside as well as outside the house, Stoudt said. That required prying open walls and ceilings to get to hidden flames.
The fire was declared under control about 6:30, but some crews remained on the scene until after 9.
A cause is not yet known, but investigators are concentrating on the kitchen of 1138, said Lt. Larry Moyer.
Damage estimates were unavailable Thursday.
The American Red Cross, Berks County Chapter, was called to arrange assistance for the displaced residents: a man and woman who live in the rented home where the fire began; two adults and a child from 1140 Birch; and an adult from 1136 Birch.
Drew Turner, who lives across the street, said he was awakened to the sound of a woman making a 9-1-1 call while standing in the middle of the street.
"Smoke was coming out the top of the house and in a matter of minutes it was flames shooting out," Turner said. "I just woke up my kids so if we had to evacuate we would already be ready to go."
Turner invited the woman and the man she lives with to come onto his porch before fire vehicles began pulling up.
"I'm just glad everyone made it out safely and nobody got hurt," he said.
Copyright 2012 - Reading Eagle, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
