Inspectors Investigate Massive Pennsylvania Fire
Source The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
Five fire inspectors are on the scene of last night's massive fire on Langstaff Place, where three residential buildings are left in ruin after flames raged through them for hours into the early morning.
City Fire Inspector Shaun Flynn, City Fire Marshal Martin Monahan and Troopers Steven Kaneski, Russell Andress and Mark Naylor -- fire inspectors from the Dunmore barracks -- are picking through the sodden rubble that is left in place of three homes that back up to Weston Field in the dense neighborhood.
Video of fire and inspection:
City firefighters stationed at Engine 9 at 1047 N. Main Ave. arrived at the blaze at 11:09 p.m., city Fire Chief Tom Davis said, less than three minutes after they were dispatched.
Upon arrival, the vacant home sitting between the two others that would ultimately burn was already engulfed in flames and threatening the adjacent homes.
Over the course of roughly two and a half hours, a crew of about 50 made up of every single city firefighter on duty for C-shift as well as a ladder truck from the Dunmore Fire Department fought the flames before finally getting control of the blaze early this morning, Chief Davis said.
"Basically it stopped jumping," Chief Davis said. "It was a hot fire. It went from house to house."
Brian Wrightson, emergency services director for the Red Cross, said a total of 19 individuals were displaced by the blaze in the 600 block of Langstaff Place, though it was not yet clear how many families and individuals made up that number.
All of the residents had evacuated the homes before firefighters arrived, Chief Davis said.
No city firefighters or residents were injured in the blaze, though one Dunmore firefighter was treated for chest pains, Chief Davis said.
Nearly 11 hours after the blaze began, water still streamed from the blackened beams curling off of the charred and sunken walls that once made up three homes.
Nearby yards were left reduced to mud by the flood of water from firefighters' hoses, the remnants of which still streamed out of Langstaff Place onto Albright Avenue this morning.
While the five inspectors push and tug at the debris and pick at rubble with shovels, the cause of the fire is considered undetermined this morning pending their investigation, Chief Davis said.
Morning dog walks and bike rides through Weston Field took a halt as onlookers paused to scan the remnants of what were once three homes.
Copyright 2012 - The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
