One Dead, Buildings Destroyed in Pennsylvania

Feb. 15, 2007
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Fire ripped through an apartment building Wednesday night in Mount Joy Township, destroying five buildings, damaging four others and killing one person.

IMAGES: Fire, Witnesses, Firefighters

The fire started at 74 East Main Street around 9:30 p.m. After putting the fire out, firefighters found a body in one of the buildings around 2:50 a.m. Officials have not identified the victim.

"Neighbor's house -- about five neighbors down started on fire and worked its way down," said fire victim Sarah Hoffer.

Hoffer watched for hours as the fire spread down the block. Firefighters shot water through the windows of her house, trying to save it.

"It sucks. It sucks real bad. I don't want to think about it," she said.

Hoffer's grandmother lives next door. Her house was also destroyed.

"Her whole roof right now is off and it's just getting worse and worse by the minute. Every time I keep watching the flames keep shooting higher and higher," she said.

About 24 people were displaced because of the fire.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries. They said battling the blaze was a difficult fight.

"One of the biggest problems we had was wind. It wasn't helping us there. It also had a pretty good pre-burn before we arrived. It had a pretty good handle on the building before we got here," said Assistant Chief Phylip Colvin.

Cold temperatures were also hard on the firefighters and bad for the water supply.

"We had some problems with the hydrants. Two of the hydrants we went to were frozen. They didn't work. When they went to open them, they snapped the stem. So, water supply is a big, big problem. We've had fires like this before but it's been a long time since we've had anything like this in Mount Joy," Colvin said.

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