A firefighter escaped injury when a power line fell on his ladder at the scene of a large fire in Verona this morning.
Joe McMeekin, assistant chief of Penn Hills Volunteer Fire Department #225, was pouring water into the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge 250 on East Railroad Avenue when he heard a wire arcing.
"It was the 'bzzt, bzzt' ," McMeekin said. "It fell right above my head. I didn't want to look. I just started making my way down the ladder."
McMeekin's father, also a firefighter, met him halfway up the ladder to make sure he was ok. The two climbed down together and continued fighting the fire, which was reported about 4 a.m.
"It was just one of them freak things," McMeekin said. "Everybody's OK and we go back to doing it again."
The fire tore through the Moose Lodge and spread to an adjacent apartment building, where everyone was safely evacuated, Verona fire Chief Ray Suchevich said.
Medics took one firefighter to St. Margaret Memorial Hospital with a suspected separated shoulder, he said. The fire was fully involved when firefighters arrived and they couldn't enter the building, Suchevich said.
"We went to a defensive attack and just started surrounding and drowning," he said.
Bricks from the front of the building crumbled to the sidewalk below. A demolition crew arrived to begin demolishing the building, which has been in the community for more than 100 years.
"It was an intense fire," Suchevich said. "It was growing too much, too fast."
Moose Lodge bar manager Clem Daube and trustee Pat McCarthy stood in front of the building and watched the firefighters work. The upcoming weddings, parties and showers the lodge planned to host will be canceled.
"It is what it is and nobody got hurt," McCarthy said. "That's why there's insurance. The firefighters did what they could."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
