Seven-Alarm High-Rise Fire in Pittsburgh Claims Life in Shadyside

March 21--One person died in a seven-alarm apartment building fire in Shadyside on Thursday morning.

Firefighters found the body near the source of the fire in a fifth-floor apartment in Amberson Towers on Bayard Street, fire Chief Darryl Jones said. Authorities said the cause of the fire is under investigation but Allegheny County Sheriff Bill Mullen said deputies on Thursday morning were scheduled to evict the man who died.

Tom Korpar, 24, a second year dental student at the University of Pittsburgh, said he slept in on Thursday but most days he's awake and cooking breakfast in his kitchen, which shares a wall with the apartment that caught fire. Korpar said the explosion left a gaping hole in his kitchen wall with flames, smoke and rubble.

"I woke when I heard an explosion that shook the walls," he said. "I went out and I could see through the wall into the other apartment. I guess I was lucky. Most days, I would have gotten up at my regular time and I would have been right there, cooking eggs."

Korpar, other neighbors and building management identified the victim as Mark Williams, age unknown. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner has not officially identified the victim.

Korpar described Williams as "reclusive, very difficult to talk to," and said he had only spoken to him in passing two or three times in the past year that he'd lived there. Neighbors said there was a confrontation between building management and Williams on Wednesday and there was a note posted on his door saying he was scheduled for eviction on Thursday.

Two other residents were taken to hospitals for smoke inhalation, and a third person was being evaluated, he said.

The fire department instituted its "high-rise plan" after the call came in at about 7:15 a.m., Jones said. The fire was contained in the originating apartment at least partially because units in the building are designed to be fire-resistant, he said.

Dozens of people were evacuated, he said, most of whom stayed in the lobby, although about a dozen moved to the Winchester Thurston School nearby. It is unclear how many of them will need to find temporary housing at this point, he said.

"We heard the alarms going off across the street and opened the door and saw there was smoke pouring out of the building and people starting to come downstairs and come outside," said Bob Walton, a maintenance man at Winchester Thurston. "I thought these people are going to freeze so we told them to come inside out of the cold."

While the fire was contained to the one apartment, other parts of the building did suffer smoke and heat damage, Jones said.

Max Petrunya, 28, said he woke up around 7 a.m. in his ninth-floor unit and heard a dull thud.

"It almost sounded like a pipe was bursting," Petrunya said. "The wall shook a little."

The fire alarm sounded and he said he went down the fire escape.

"You don't expect a fire of this capacity at your building," Petrunya said.

Margaret Harding and Tony LaRussa are a staff writers for Trib Total Media. Harding can be reached at 412-380-8519 or [email protected]. LaRussa can be reached at 412-320-7987 or [email protected]