Fire Department City of
Jeannette
March 5th, 2005
00:15 hrs.
On March 5th, at 00:15 hrs. the City of Jeannette Fire Dept. was
dispatched to a possible house fire @ 304 Bullitt Ave.
Additional calls to Westmoreland County 911 were reports of
flames venting out of the windows. Eng. 112-8 arrived on scene
first, and confirmed a working house fire on the 2nd floor of a
2 story multifamily dwelling, wood frame construction, fire on
the sector 1 & 4 sides. They had live power lines down in the
middle of the roadway upon arrival. Eng. 112-7 was to hit the
hydrant @ S. 6th ST. & Bullitt Ave. and lay into Eng. 112-8, and
Tower Ladder 112 was to go past the scene and come into the
scene & set-up in front of Eng. 112-8.
Firefighters were encountered first by an irate male still
inside the house, sitting on the 2nd floor access stairs. He was
denying to leave the house.
City firefighters were attempting to get the male to leave, when
he stated his father was still inside. Firefighters had to get
the city P.D. to use their taser guns to subdue the male in
order to be able to get him to cooperate. Once the male was
taken to an ambulance, firefighters had to extinguish the fast
moving fire, before they could do a search. The primary &
secondary searches didn't turn up any bodies, and once the
firefighters determined nobody was still inside the house, they
concentrated on their overhaul operations. Due to overhead
electrical lines the tower ladder could not be set-up, and it
was determined that the roof was too unstable to place a
firefighter on it to ventilate. Firefighters spent 2 hrs.
bringing the stubborn fire under control due to the poor
conditions of the structure. Two city firefighters received
minor burns and were treated at the local hospital and released.
Jeannette crews were assisted by Salvage 24, and Air 79-2.
Stand-by units were Truck 79-2, Engine 21, and Engine 106.
