On August, 10 just after 3 a.m., the City of Pittsburgh fire dispatch received calls of a possible fire inside a vacant apartment building located at 5433 Elmer Street in the Shadyside section of the City. The 1st alarm assignment was then dispatched at 3:19. The fire arriving officer found heavy smoke pouring from the 4th floor of the 3 story brick structure and requested that a 2nd alarm be dispatched.
Firefighters began to initiate an interior attack. Conditions worsened quickly and 12 minutes later, the front top half of the building collapsed into the street injuring one firefighter who was taken to the hospital with fractures to his hand and foot. Once the collapse occurred, firefighters were evacuated from the structure and a 3rd alarm was dispatched. At this point, they switched to a defensive attack and began to set up master streams to attack the fire and to protect nearby exposures.
3 Aerial master streams were also established. Crews battled with heavy fire conditions on the 2nd and 3rd floors for several hours before the fire was under control. Crews did manage to prevent any further spread of the fire into nearby structures. Firefighters stayed on scene most of the day to extinguish hot spots. The fire, which started in a vacant apartment building that was under renovations was completely destroyed and will be demolished due to the amount of damage to the structure.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
