Allentown, PA, Firefighters Battle simultaneous Warehouse and Rowhome Fires

Morning Call staff
The Morning Call
(TNS)

Allentown firefighters responded to two fires are the same time Thursday night.

The first blaze broke out about 8 p.m. at a commercial warehouse building on the city’s east side at a commercial building in the 900 block of East Highland Street, near the intersection with North Irving Street, according to fire Capt. Jonathan Hammel.

Fire crews arrived and found a large commercial business with black smoke coming from the entire building, the captain said Friday morning.

“The first companies found a considerable amount of smoke,” he said.

The building is listed as the address for Super Spa Furniture LLC, a company that sells fixtures for nail salons, according to its website.

Not long after that fire, another one was reported in a row home in the 400 block of West Washington Street, Hammel said. Police and neighbors reported smoke from the third floor in a home in the middle of the row, he said.

Crews were able to keep the fire mainly to that middle row home, which had extensive damage, according to the captain. There was minor damage to the adjoining homes. Five people were displaced in the fire, he said. The Red Cross is helping one resident, while the others are staying with family.

The fire was under control quick, he said, and crews cleared the scene before midnight.

Crews were able to get the warehouse fire under control before then, but investigators stayed on scene after in the early morning hours. Hammel said Friday morning that the warehouse cannot be occupied because of structural damage.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries in the warehouse fire, but they did not have to be taken to a hospital for treatment, according to Hammel. No injuries were reported in the rowhome fire.

Both remain under investigation.

Hammel said the fire department was thankful for the several other fire departments that helped battle both blazes Thursday.

“We would not have been able to control all that without them,” he said.

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