Trapped Pa. Girl Given Air Pack as Crews Put Out Fire

March 21, 2013
Reading firefighters gave a 14-year-old girl who was trapped by thick smoke in a third floor room an air mask while they extinguished the fire in the kitchen below her.

March 21--Firefighters came to the rescue of a 14-year-old girl Wednesday in a burning row house in northeast Reading.

First Deputy Fire Chief Gary Mogel said the fire started shortly after 6 p.m. on the stove and spread to the kitchen cabinets and a wall at 936 Union St.

Thick smoke trapped the girl, who lives in the house on the third floor. She was looking out of a window as firefighters arrived on the scene.

Mogel said firefighters determined that the teen was not in imminent danger so they gave her one of their oxygen masks for breathing while they extinguished the flames.

After the fire, they walked the girl out of the house and she was checked by paramedics at the scene.

Her name was unavailable.

A fire official said the girl had been cooking and went upstairs before the fire started.

The fire was ruled accidental and damage was set at $10,000, according to fire officials.

Copyright 2013 - Reading Eagle, Pa.

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