March 12--At least 10 city residents are homeless today after flames consumed one West Side home and spread to an adjacent one, sending a pillar of smoke rising over the city and choking a crowded neighborhood with smoke.
"When we arrived on-scene you couldn't put your hand in front of you," city Fire Chief Tom Davis said.
City firefighters were first dispatched to a fire at the double-family home at 1518-1520 Swetland St. at 9:03 a.m. and arrived at 9:08 a.m., according to the Lackawanna County Communications Center.
The first truck on the scene came from Engine 8 on North Main Avenue.
Already facing what Asst. Chief James Floryshak called an "advanced fire," when crews began to enter the building at 1518-1520 Swetland St., a PPL Electric Utilities line to the home burned off, swinging the sparking, live wire down to the street.
Crews then had to reposition their equipment before they could begin work, by which point the flames had already reached the home's second and third floors, Asst. Chief Floryshak said.
"That kind of delayed us," he said.
By 9:30 a.m., commanders had activated the emergency horn on one of the city's trucks, signalling all of the firefighters inside 1518-1520 Swetland St. to get out of the building.
"It got to a point where it wasn't safe to have anybody in that building," Asst. Chief Floryshak said. "We had to get our folks out."
As dense, gray smoke climbed into the blue sky, flames continued to curl around the home's eaves and out of windows.
When the flames had been nearly drowned out and the smoke began to clear, a gaping hole burned through the home's exterior attic wall left the sky visible through charred roof breams.
By the time the full-response had been assembled, several city trucks were joined by a crew from the Dunmore Fire Department, which assisted in the rear of the two homes.
Crews from Olyphant and Peckville were stationed at the Dunmore Fire Department while the borough's crew assisted with the Swetland Street fire, according to the communications center.
While the blaze put one building on a demolition list, the other suffered primarily external fire damage, Asst. Chief Floryshak said.
"That was quite the feat," he said. "These apparatus don't put fire out -- firemen put fire out."
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Copyright 2012 - The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
