Nine Pennsylvania Homes Destroyed by Fire

All residents could do was watch this morning as a windy Mother's Day morning rapidly turned a single-unit fire into a five-alarm inferno that leapt from rooftop to rooftop in their Whitpain Township neighborhood, demolishing nine homes and damaging two, and displacing 17 residents to hotels and the homes of family members, residents said.

"We were fire spectators until it became our fire," said Gail Keppler, who was standing outside her home in the Steeple Chase development with other neighbors this afternoon. The scent of burning embers still lingered in the air several hours after the fire; charred wooden roofing tiles lie strewn across the ground.

The 6:30 a.m. fire required about 150 firefighters and took over two hours to control, as embers from burning roofs jumped to neighboring units and buildings, said Whitpain Township Fire Marshal Dave Camarda. The residents escaped without injury; two firefighters were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

"The fire had a good hold on the building before we were detached," Camarda said. He said firefighters were attempting to determine the fire's origin but that the structures were unsafe.