Cause of Pittsburgh Building Fire Investigated

March 26, 2013
Four people were hospitalized and 10 were treated at the scene of a four-alarm Pittsburgh apartment fire that forced firefighters to rescue about two dozen from windows.

March 26--A four-alarm fire in a Garfield apartment building Monday morning sent four people to the hospital and forced rescues of about two dozen.

Fire Chief Darryl Jones said 10 people were treated on scene and released after the fire at 305 N. Negley Ave.

The blaze, which was reported about 7:15 a.m., started in the stairwell of the back building, which is adjoined to the one facing the street, he said. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Deputy Chief Dan Hennessy said.

The building incurred about $150,000 in damage, and about $75,000 in contents were damaged, he said.

Those taken to the hospital were to be treated for minor smoke inhalation.

The Animal Rescue League took in four cats from the fire, treating three with oxygen for smoke inhalation. Three of the four have been released.

An unidentified older man was taken to UPMC Presbyterian. His neighbor, Evelyn Rodriguez, said the man used oxygen and has lived in the building several years.

"I just feel so bad for him," she said. "He couldn't get out."

Ms. Rodriguez said she began tying bedsheets together to try to get out of her second-floor apartment.

"I was just going to jump out," she said. "There was no way I was going to get burned up in there."

But firefighters were able to rescue her by extending a ladder to her window, she said.

Anna Walsh, a senior at Carnegie Mellon University, was doing homework in her first-floor apartment when she heard smoke alarms sound just before 7 a.m.

She and her roommate grabbed their cat and climbed out the window. Ms. Walsh said she heard people in apartments above hers calling out for help, and she and her roommate went around to the back of the apartment building.

"There were flames coming out of the back," she said.

A representative from J.J. Land Co., which owns the building, could not confirm Monday afternoon when residents could return to the building or if the fire impacted the building's utilities.

Molly Born: [email protected], 412-263-1944 ; Lexi Belculfine: [email protected], 412-263-1878.

Copyright 2013 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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