PA Apartment Fire Injures 13, Including 9 Firefighters

From the Reading Eagle:

Nine firefighters and four residents were injured Sunday morning in a fire in an apartment house in Reading, fire officials said.

The fire started about 10 a.m. on the second floor of the building at 245 S. 10th St. and quickly spread to the second floor of the adjoining apartment building at 243 S. 10th, Deputy Fire Chief Ron E. Wentzel Jr. said.

A total of 16 residents were displaced, officials said.

Four third-floor residents of the building at 245 S. 10th were taken by ambulance to Reading Hospital, where they were treated for smoke inhalation, Wentzel said.

At least one of the victims is an infant, he said.

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Eight firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion, and one firefighter was treated for burns to his hands and wrists, Wentzel said.

Read more HERE.

MD Firefighter Hospitalized After Apartment Fire

From the Owings Mills Patch:

A three-alarm fire at Old Coach Lane in Owings Mills Tuesday afternoon injured one volunteer firefighter and displaced 25 people, including 12 children, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokesman said.

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Firefighters were dispatched at 2:09 p.m., Ringgold said. When the first firefighters arrived, they immediately requested a second alarm. A third alarm was requested at about 2:30 p.m.

The injured firefighter, from Owings Mills Volunteer Fire Company, was sent to Sinai Hospital for heat exhaustion, Ringgold said. The firefighter’s identity was not immediately available.

Firefighters Rescue Couple from Brooklyn (NY) Apartment Fire

From the NY Post:

Firefighters rescued two elderly people from a Brooklyn fire early this morning, including an unconscious 200-pound man.

The 71-year-old man was in critical condition from burns and smoke inhalation, and a 69-year-old woman was discovered in cardiac arrest from smoke inhalation.

Firetruck chauffeur Francis Valerio, 40, climbed up a ladder to the fifth-floor apartment where he broke open the bedroom window and discovered the victims inside by crawling on the floor through the black smoke. Another firefighter climbed in through the fire escape to assist in the search.

Several firefighters struggled to pull the unconscious man out, who sources said weighed about 200 pounds, and managed to get both victims out while other firefighters coming up from downstairs extinguished the flames. The woman was unconscious but firefighters were also able to pull her out alive.

Read it all HERE.

Insecticide Ignites, Causing Yonkers (NY) Apartment Fire

From lohud.com:

A man spraying insecticide in his apartment accidentally started a three-alarm fire that sent smoke and flames through two floors of a six-story Yonkers apartment building Tuesday, fire officials said.

The Red Cross said 13 people from five apartments in the building were homeless. The man whose apartment the fire started in suffered burns to his feet and was hospitalized. A woman who suffers from asthma was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The fire in the 42-unit apartment building at 26 Post St. was reported at 12:42 p.m. Sixty firefighters brought the blaze under control by 1:18 p.m., Fire Chief William Fitzpatrick said.

A flame of some type ignited the insecticide, and the man ended up with burns on his feet, Fitzpatrick said.

Fire and smoke were shooting out of the second and third floors of the brick building and up to the fourth floor when firefighters arrived, the fire chief said. Firefighters had to help 30 people get out of the building.

Read the full report and see photos HERE.

Two Children Saved from IL Apartment Fire

From the Naperville Sun:

Two pre-teenage girls escaped injury Thursday morning after being rescued from a bedroom of their burning apartment in Woodridge.

Two fire medics from the Lisle-Woodridge Fire District picked up the children and carried them to safety during the blaze at the three-story Lincoln at Seven Bridges apartment complex at 6685 Double Eagle Drive, according to Bureau Chief Jim French.

Neither the girls – both under the age of 10 – nor the fire medics were injured during the blaze, although a male firefighter-paramedic suffered a minor cut, French said. The firefighter-paramedic was treated at the scene, he said.

Read more HERE.

Fire in IL Apartment Complex Kills 6

A fire at a small apartment complex in Aurora, Illinois, killed 6 people and injured approximately 12 at 4:06 a.m. Sunday morning. The fire began on the first floor and moved to the floors above. The apartment building was consumed by flames by the time firefighters arrived at the scene as heavy smoke covered the surrounding area. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The complex housed approximately 30 residents according to reports from Chicagoist.com.

Fire department officials reported that two of the fatalities occurred when residents opened their apartment doors during the fire, which caused it to spread into their residence.

Read the whole story HERE

Brooklyn (NY) Fire Kills Two Men

Two men were killed in a four-alarm Brooklyn fire that spread throughout four row houses on Sunday. More than 170 firefighters responded to the incident which killed one victim inside the building and another who dropped from a window to his death, according to reports from Mail Online.

New York City fire department officials gave details of the incident during the report:

"New York City fire department spokesperson Mike Parrella told MailOnline.com the department received a 911 call about the fire at 9:13 pm last night. Mr Parrella said 170 personnel from 39 fire department units responded within minutes to the blaze, which is thought to have started around 9 p.m., possibly on the three-story building's top floor."

Mr Parrella said in the report:

"It went under control at 11:15. 'It was pretty bad. There was heavy fire on the first and second floors."

Read the entire story HERE

Fire Kills Family in Utica, NY

A mother and three young children were killed in a Utica, NY duplex:

In Utica, N.Y., yesterday, a fire in a duplex house killed a mother and her three young children, and witnesses heard banging on the walls as fire tore through the home. The children were ages 1, 2, and 4 years old, Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks said. The victims’ names were not released.

Fire investigators say preliminary information indicates the fire started on the first floor, spread throughout the entire first floor, and then went up the front stairwell to the bedrooms where the victims were located. The cause was not known.

Read more HERE and HERE.

PHOTOS FROM THE INCIDENT

Firefighter Rescues Teens from CA Duplex Fire

From www.dailynews.com:

A fire damaged a duplex in Huntington Beach today, and a firefighter rescued two teens unharmed from a second-story bedroom, authorities said.

The fire was reported at 6:48 a.m. in the 7800 block of Talbert Avenue, Huntington Beach Assistant Fire Marshal Jeff Lopez said.

The fire began in the garage of the two-story duplex, and spread to the interior of the building. The teen-age boys tried to get out through the hallway, but were driven back into the bedroom by the smoke, Lopez said.

Read more about the incident HERE.

GA Firefighters, Civilians Injured in Apartment Fire

From The Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Fire destroyed a building Tuesday afternoon at the Winding River Village apartments in Sandy Springs, displacing about 10 families.

Two firefighters and two civilians were taken to North Fulton Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. They are expected to be ok, according to Sandy Springs Police Lt. Steve Rose.

Crews continued to fight so-called hot spots -- areas of the building that had not completely cooled and could easily reignite -- late Tuesday afternoon, said Sandy Springs fire marshal Jeff Scarbrough. While authorities have some preliminary information on what may have caused the fire, it won't be until at least Tuesday morning before they can start investigating.

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The fire began at about 12:30 p.m., said Scarbrough. Firefighters arrived to find a mother and three small children in the parking lot. They were in the apartment unit that caught fire, he said.

Crews went to the first and closest fire hydrant, which did not have water, Scarbrough said.

Scarbrough said the lack of water slowed their efforts, but crews already were hooking up hoses to other hydrants nearby.

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The fire moved into the attic within 10 minutes, causing part of the roof to collapse, Scarbrough said. Crews then had to stop and come out of the building to account for each of the firefighters before they could begin working again, Scarbrough said.

Read the entire article and see photos HERE.

Los Angeles (CA) Apartment Fire Injures 6

From the AP via MercuryNews.com:

A fire in an apartment complex above a South Los Angeles church has injured six people, one critically.

City News Service says the fire was reported shortly before 1:30 a.m. Monday in a stairwell in the second-floor apartment complex above the New Life Christian Church.

The fire was quickly doused. A 54-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition.

Read more HERE.

Wind a Factor in Columbus (OH) Apartment Fire

From The Columbus Disptach:

A raging, windblown fire heavily damaged a building with eight apartment units on the Far West Side yesterday afternoon.

Columbus firefighters were called at 4:52 p.m. to the Hilliard Park apartment complex off Roberts Road west of Walcutt Road. The building on fire included odd-numbered apartments in the 2460 block of Hilliard Park Boulevard.

"When they got here, they had heavy fire," said Battalion Chief David Whiting of the Columbus Division of Fire.

No one was hurt.

Wind complicated fighting the fire, which took about 45 minutes to bring under control. Whiting estimated that winds gusted to 30 mph.

Read more HERE.