Nearly 100 PA Firefighters Tackle Sweltering Commercial Blaze

A commercial blaze had nearly 100 firefighters from 10 fire companies braving heavy smoke and sweltering conditions Monday.

Crews responded to a fire that broke out at Specialty Tire in Indiana, KDKA-TV reports. The industrial building was nearly a century old and had been preparing for its annual shutdown for retooling.

“You have a facility like this, you have a lot of different chemicals, products, gases that are involved,”  Indiana Fire Association First Assistant Chief Ron Moreau told KDKA.

When firefighters reached the scene, they faced visibility issues because of the thick smoke. The flames, as well as the high temperatures over the past few days, also created incredibly hot conditions on the building's roof, which Moreau described as a large baking stone.

“They were feeling the heat through their boots,” he told KDKA.