Pa. Firefighters Reflect on Sad, Exhausting Day

March 08--Francis Evanko saw the raging flames, heard the frantic screams and did what firefighters naturally do: rush toward the danger. Neighbors alerted firefighters to two trapped men, pointing to the third-floor apartment at 37-39 Pine St. as heavy black smoke rose into the sky.

Evanko knew he had to act fast. He and two fellow Wilkes-Barre firefighters scaled the fire escape, busted through a sliding glass door and hit the ground to crawl in search of victims.

"As soon as it broke, it poured out, the heat and smoke," Evanko recalled Wednesday. "It was dark and hot."

Reaching out to feel his way through the darkness, Evanko touched what he believed to be a human face.

"I found my guy and literally had to put my facemask against his face to make sure it was him and not something else," Evanko said. "All I saw was his eyes and nose."

Evanko pulled the unconscious man to the exit. Another firefighter soon followed with the other victim. Just a few minutes inside, the rescue was complete. But, still, it was too late. Despite a frantic effort to revive the two men with CPR, they died shortly after arrival at a local hospital.

"With stuff like this, it's not much thinking. It's reaction and training. You just do it," Evanko said. "Sometimes you question, what did I do? What could I have done better? You second guess yourself with a lot of stuff. With how everything went, we gave them the best chance we could. For the next couple weeks we'll talk about this in bits and pieces."

It was a sad ending to a wild, energy-depleting day for the city fire department that was called to two devastating fires on Tuesday within 14 hours. For some, like Fire Chief Jay Delaney, it was an 18-hour day full of quick decisions, hard work and wide-ranging emotions.

At around 2:41 a.m., city fire crews were called to a raging blaze at two vacant properties at 27 and 31 Academy St. that was in danger of jumping to two more -- a residential home and a casket company.

"When they left here, they saw the glow in the sky," Delaney recalled Wednesday.

Despite significant challenges and little time to make decisions, Delaney said the incident commander made the correct calls and firefighters executed near flawlessly to save the two endangered structures, dousing them with water to prevent the inferno from spreading. The truck operator guided the ladder to an ideal position to attack the fire from above, then crews received a much needed assist from their cross-river brothers from the Kingston Fire Department, he said. An additional 22 firefighters and 2 paramedics were called out.

They fought flames for hours and continued to battle hot spots until almost noon.

But there would be little rest. Just before 5 p.m., another blaze was reported at 37-39 Pine St., a multi-unit apartment complex in the East End. The fire was confirmed quickly when the first-due crew saw smoke filling the sky as they left the Hollenback station.

"We just had a huge fire, you get beat to heck, and then you get another one," Delaney said.

The call sounded worse as more details came in. Delaney abandoned a meal he was having, and went to the scene. He'd later be among those giving CPR to the victims outside the home.

Firefighter Mike Bilski was just about to leave work after his shift at fire headquarters, but decided to hop on an engine and head to the fire.

"We heard there was entrapment. That's the worse thing you can hear. As soon as you hear that, something clicks and we had to be there," he said.

Bilski arrived after the initial crews already had the victims on the ground outside the home, performing CPR.

"They looked pretty beat up after that from the amount of effort it took to recover the victims and to get them down to the ground and then switch over from a firefighter role to an EMS role," he recalled.

Bilski then rushed inside to battle the raging flames. As Bilski and a host of other first fighters were inside the structure, Delaney said he began to worry for their safety based on the color of the smoke, that he feared the situation was "getting really bad."

"It's not often when the fire chief gets concerned, but I was concerned. We were very uncomfortable. It wasn't looking good," Delaney said.

Delaney radioed the incident commander, Tom Makar, that he be believed the firefighters should be pulled from the home. Several of the senior firefighters responded to Delaney, "Give us a couple more minutes. We'll knock this out."

They did.

"I trusted their judgement and they got it right," Delaney said.

Despite all they went through, the day exhibited the best in the city fire department, the chief said.

"It didn't matter what rank you were, everyone contributed," Delaney said. "That 18 hours was a total Wilkes-Barre Fire Department team event."

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