ANDY PALUMBO
WNEP
Reprinted with Permission

Investigators are looking for the cause of Tuesday morning's fire in Schuylkill County. Fourteen people are out of their homes after the early morning fire in Mahanoy City.


A state police fire marshall is looking for the cause of the flames that nearly took out a block of East Pine Street.

Firefighters poured water on a string of seven row homes.

The first alarm came in at 2:30 a.m.

Karen Conyngham lives across the street. "Looked down the street and just saw nothing but smoke, and the neighbor was in the middle street, screaming my house is on fire, my house is on fire," said Conyngham, neighbor.

That resident, and two others were taken to the hospital for breathing in too much smoke. One had minor burns. All three were treated and released, according to the fire company.

There are seven connected row homes and for a while firefighters feared all seven could go up in flames.

Row home fires are nothing new, in Mahanoy City.

"Row home destruction in M.C. is one of our worst nightmares," said Tony Blackwell, fire company safety officer. Newswatch 16 asked how do you keep this thing from going down the block? "Aggressive interior attack, quick ventilation through the roof and a lot of manpower," added Blackwell.

He said two row homes were destroyed. The others have varying degrees of damage. Some people could be back in their homes in a few days.

It's been a day neighbors will never forget. "I came out and I seen the first house. I guess something exploded inside of it and the flames, the lady was running out. The flames chased her out," said Samantha Blume, neighbor.

The fire chief said every home had smoke alarms and it clearly saved lives.

No firefighters were hurt. The red cross is helping the fire victims.

All the streets that were closed due to the fire are open again.