When firefighters responded to a raging two-alarm house fire in Lehigh Township Thursday night, they quickly realized the fire would be the second problem they needed to address.
The first problem? A naked man running around.
“We arrived and encountered a man running around without any clothes on outside the home” as the second story of the house was being consumed in flames, Lehigh Township Police Chief Scott Fogel said.
The two-alarm fire started shortly after 9 p.m. in a two-story residence on Quince Road off West Mountain View Drive. Two people were displaced and no injuries were reported.
What looked like blood was visible on the damaged windshield of a vehicle parked nearby.
Firefighters were warned not to get close enough to the burning house to start fighting the fire until the scene was secured, meaning until the naked man was in police custody, according to information relayed through the Northampton County Control Center.
“By the time we arrived, police were struggling with [the naked man],” Lehigh Township Fire Chief Richard Hildebrand said. “It was a chaotic scene.”
Crews commenced battling the blaze once police had the man in custody. A fire marshal was called in afterward to investigate how the fire started.
As of early Friday morning, there were no charges filed or any details available on whether the man lived there or not.
“There may have been drugs involved in connection with this, but that’s not confirmed yet,” Fogel said. “We’re trying to find out more.”
The Red Cross was called to help the displaced residents.
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