On The Job – Pennsylvania: Children Playing with Lighter Ignite $1 Million Fire in Bellefonte Landmark

BELLEFONTE FIRE DEPARTMENT
Chief: Tim Knisely
Personnel: 70 volunteer firefighters
Apparatus: Three pumpers, two aerials, one rescue-engine, one tanker, two brush trucks
Population: 12,000
Area: 42 square miles

A fast-moving fire on July 14, 2004, destroyed a historic school building converted into an apartment building in downtown Bellefonte, PA. The fire, started by children playing with a lighter, forced 45 people from their apartments and caused more than $1 million in damage. Dangerous conditions forced a change in tactics from offensive to defensive, forcing command to overcome water-supply problems, and at one point, a rapid intervention team was deployed to search for two firefighters reported missing for a brief period. About 175 firefighters and 16 pieces of apparatus responded.

Bellefonte Academy was founded in 1805 as a preparatory school. The school educated a number of governors, senators, judges and other prominent individuals. Closing during the Civil War, it reopened in 1868 and remained open until 1934. In 1939, a fire destroyed Bellefonte High School and classes were moved to the vacant academy until 1942, when construction of the new high school was completed. The academy was converted to apartments in the late 1940s. At the time of the fire, the Academy Apartments contained 33 units. Located 10 feet away was the two-story Headmasters House, with eight apartments.

The 199-year-old, three-story academy structure was of ordinary construction with a masonry exterior. The roof was metal with metal trusses built up over an old slate roof. The building measured 210 feet by 70 feet and was perched on a knoll overlooking the downtown business district, accessible by apparatus on only one side.

The academy and the adjacent Headmasters House have had a long history of fires. On July 19, 1904, a fire discovered shortly before 7 A.M. destroyed the third floor and roof. The building did not reopen again until 1913 after extensive renovations. A fire discovered on May 30, 1921, at dinner time also destroyed the third floor and roof of the building. Repairs were made and the academy remained open until 1934, when it closed for financial reasons. In June 2001, the Headmaster House was struck by a three-alarm fire that gutted the third floor.

The Bellefonte Fire Department, comprised of the Logan and Undine fire companies, was dispatched at 12:03 P.M. to a reported structure fire at the Bellefonte Academy at 225 W. Bishop St. Responding under the command of Fire Chief Tim Knisely were Truck 2-17, a 100-foot aerial with a five-person crew; Engine 1-11, also with five firefighters; Rescue Engine 1-14, with a three-person crew; and Engine 2-10, also with a crew of three. Weather conditions were 75 degrees with occasional thunderstorms and high humidity.

As Knisely was responding, the Centre County Emergency Communications Center advised him of a working fire in a second-floor apartment. Knowing the hazards and the fire history of the building, Knisely immediately struck a second alarm. While he was enroute, the communications center relayed a report from the Bellefonte Police Department that people were trapped on the second floor.

Arriving at 12:06, Knisely found heavy smoke and fire on the C-D corner of the second floor, with fire venting out of the windows exposing the third floor and attic. Knisely established Academy Command in front of the building on side A. Truck 2-17 arrived at 12:08 and was positioned on the A side in front of the main entrance. The only access to the building was from the driveway on side A. The crew split up, with one team assigned to conduct a primary search on the second floor and the other team to advance a 1¾-inch handline to try to reach the fire apartment on the second floor.

Assistant Chief Shelly DeHass said, “When we first went in, there was only light smoke on the first and second floors, but then it started to get thicker and blacker.”

Engine 1-11 arrived at 12:09 and laid a supply line from a hydrant on South Spring Street to the front of the structure. The crew from Engine 1-11 stretched a 2½-inch line to the second floor as a backup. A supply line was stretched to Truck 2-17 from Engine 1-11. Engine 1-11 Officer Robert Frazier Jr. and Firefighter Anastasia Winisko deployed a 24-foot ground ladder on side A to remove a tenant who was trapped in an apartment on the second floor. Two other residents were assisted out of the building by police officers and firefighters using the interior stairway. Other residents were self-evacuatiing from the building upon arrival of the fire department.

Interior crews found heavy heat and smoke on the second floor, but could not initially reach the fire apartment until Truck 2-17’s handline was extended another 100 feet by adding a three-inch leader line. Firefighters searched the remaining apartments on the second floor and found that the fire had spread to the floors below and above the fire floor. While the firefighters from Truck 2-17 tried to maintain their stairway location, a 1¾-inch handline was stretched to side D from Engine 1-11. The crew with that line tried to access the second floor from the fire escape, but the windows on that floor had failed and exposed the fire escape to heavy fire. Engine 1-11’s handline was directed to the third floor in an attempt to slow the horizontal fire spread.

At this point, all interior handlines were trying to stop the horizontal fire spread, but due to the poor construction features and lack of fire separations, the fire was running the voids, both horizontally and vertically. DeHass said “It was hot and hard to see. The heat was intense, but we couldn’t find the fire.” Using a thermal imaging camera, the crew could see the fire rolling over their heads.

With the fire continuing to spread out of control, Bellefonte Engine 2-10 arrived and accessed the fire from the Knights of Columbus parking lot south of the building. Firefighters stretched a supply line to side C to supply a portable monitor in preparation for master-stream operations. Bellefonte Rescue Engine 1-14 arrived on scene and the crew was assigned to the staging area. Engine 1-14 proceeded to the hydrant at the intersection of Allegheny and Logan streets and laid 1,000 feet of supply line from the hydrant to West Bishop Street to prepare an additional supply line for master-stream operations.

On the second-alarm dispatch, Citizen’s Hook & Ladder of Milesburg responded with Rescue Engine 9-14 and a crew of 10. Engine 9-14 laid a supply line from the six inch hydrant at Academy Lane and Spring Street to the A-B corner of the building in preparation for supplying additional master streams. The crew from Rescue Engine 9-14 was assigned to meet up with the crew from Engine 1-11 and search the third floor.

Pleasant Gap Fire Department Engine 8-10 arrived and staged in the Knights of Columbus parking lot. Its crew was assigned to access the first floor from side C and to search the first-floor apartments. Bellefonte Truck 2-16, a 75-foot aerial, arrived and nosed into Truck 2-17. This unit started vertical ventilation efforts and prepared for master-stream operations. Alpha Fire Company of State College responded with Truck 5-17, a 95-foot aerial tower, and set up in the Knights of Columbus parking lot to prepare for exposure protection. Pleasant Gap Fire Department Heavy Rescue 8-18 responded and staged on Spring Street and Academy Lane. That crew established a rapid intervention team (RIT) and refilled air cylinders. The RIT was staged on side A near the command post and performed a building size-up.

As crews searched apartments, the fire continued to rapidly spread through the first, second and third floors. Due to the double roof above the attic, the fire would not self-ventilate and it was not possible to ventilate the roof due to the number of voids between the roof structures. The fire began bank down from the attic to the third floor. The third-floor division advised that it could no longer maintain its position on the floor and had to leave. At the same time, the safety officer reported that two firefighters from Engine 8-10 were missing on the first floor as they got separated from their crew while searching apartments and fire cut off their means of egress. The RIT was activated to begin the search for the firefighters. About two minutes later, the crew found another way out, and was safe outside the building. The RIT then went back on standby.

As conditions continued to rapidly deteriorate, Knisely requested a third alarm at 12:37 and ordered the building evacuated two minutes later. A personnel accountability report (PAR) was taken and all firefighters were accounted for. Defensive operations were initiated at this time. Command established a collapse zone, meaning apparatus had to be relocated and water-supply operations had to be rearranged. Truck 2-17 and Engine 1-11 were relocated about 75 feet from the building on the A-D corner. On side D, Engine 1-11 supplied a deck gun, and a step-gun was supplied with a 250-foot supply line from a hydrant. Rescue Engine 1-14 supplied Truck 2-17’s master-stream operations, while Truck 2-16 was repositioned to the A-B corner for master-stream operations and supplied by Rescue Engine 9-14. Truck 5-17, supplied by Engine 2-10, was assigned to provide exposure protection to the Headmaster’s House, a two-story, multi-family apartment building 10 feet to the south on side B. Engine 8-10 supplied master streams on side C. Two portable step guns were positioned on the C side.

Responding on the third alarm were Centre Hall Fire Company Engine 4-12, Alpha Fire Company Engine 5-12 and Truck 5-16, a 75-foot aerial, Walker Township Fire Company Rescue Engine 16-14 and Howard Fire Company Heavy Rescue 14-18. All units responding on the third alarm were assigned to a staging area established in the municipal parking lot at the intersection of Bishop and Spring streets.

As the number of master streams increased, some water-supply problems were encountered as the municipal supply could not keep up with the demand. Alpha Engine 5-12 was assigned to pressurize the hydrant on South Spring Street to supplement Engine 1-11’s supply. Without much improvement of the hydrant supply, a drafting operation was established from Spring Creek, located on South Water Street in downtown Bellefonte, 1,500 feet away with an elevation change of over 75 feet using the remaining two engines in the staging area. Walker Township Engine 16-14 drafted from the stream using 20 feet of hard suction and supplied Centre Hall Engine 4-12, positioned 600 feet away. Alpha Engine 5-12 then abandoned its hydrant and acted as the third engine in the relay, 600 feet from Engine 4-12, and supplied Engine 1-11, which was 500 feet away with a sustained flow. Alpha Truck 5-16 was assigned to exposure protection of neighboring buildings. Howard Heavy Rescue 14-18 went to staging as a secondary air supply.

With the lack of auto ventilation of the roof, the fire was forced to all the lower floors. Firestorm-like conditions, created by the blowing fire, threatened a block of commercial buildings containing a variety store, a furniture store and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars building. Burning embers were falling up to 10 blocks away and smoke covered the entire downtown area. A roof fire was reported on an apartment house 100 feet to the east of side A. Truck 5-16 and Truck 2-16 extinguished this fire and checked the interior for extension.

Because of the potential of fire spread, command requested a fourth alarm at 1:15. Boalsburg Fire Company Engine 3-11, Citizen’s Hook and Ladder Engine 9-12, Port Matilda Fire Company Engine 15-10, Alpha Fire Company Heavy Rescue 5-18, Philipsburg Fire Department Truck 12-16, a 75-foot aerial, and Mifflin County Truck 11-1, a 100-foot aerial tower, responded on this alarm. They were staged in the municipal parking lot at Spring and Bishop streets for ember patrol and additional exposure protection.

The roof of the building failed at 1:45 P.M. Once this happened, the fire was contained. Engine 3-11, Rescue 5-18 and Truck 12-16 were then transferred to Bellefonte Station 2 to cover the neighboring fire protection districts. Other units in staging were transferred to other stations or made available. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries and two civilians were treated for smoke inhalation.

Station fill-in units from Clinton County included Rescue 6-6 from Lock Haven Fire Department to Milesburg; Beech Creek/Blanchard Fire Company Engine 9-1 transferred to Milesburg and Ambulance 9-8 relocated to Bellefonte EMS Station 26, Lamar Township Engine 17-1 relocated to Walker Township and Mifflin County Engine 7-1 from the Milroy Fire Company was transferred to Pleasant Gap.

A shelter was opened at the local elementary school three blocks from the scene. This was done with the cooperation of the Bellefonte School District and coordinated by the Centre County Emergency Management Agency, Bellefonte Borough and the American Red Cross. All displaced residents went there to register with the local agencies so their immediate and long-term needs could be assessed. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency considered this incident as a Small Business Administration (SBA) declared disaster. By being a declared disaster, it also provided aid or low-interest loans for any businesses that may have suffered losses due to the fire. This shelter was operated for 48 hours.

Due to the overwhelming media attention, a public information officer (PIO) was assigned early in the incident. Due to the time of day of the fire, many occupants were not at home, but that could not be confirmed. The police department had a list of residents and attempted to locate friends or family members to confirm their locations. To aid in this effort, the PIO asked residents who were watching the newscasts or those that knew the location of a resident to contact or report to the shelter. Additionally, the media were used to report road closures and traffic detours as the evening rush hour was approaching.

Shortly after arrival of firefighters, the Allegheny Power Co. and the Columbia Gas Co. were notified to have representatives to respond and secure electric and natural gas to the site. The electric company initially cut power to the building, but later was asked to shut down the neighboring grid to aid in master-stream operations. That decision impacted the downtown business district as well as traffic lights in the immediate area. The gas company could not initially access the meter box as it was exposed to fire and no street valve was accessible. As the fire spread, the gas line was compromised and eventually failed. The gas was feeding the fire in the center of the building, but did not contribute to any additional fire spread or damage. Eventually, the gas company accessed the meter and slowed the flow, and later used a backhoe to dig up the driveway to clamp the line. Gas crews returned the following day and made a permanent disconnection.

A two-day investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal’s Division, Bellefonte Fire Department and the Bellefonte Police Department determined that the fire was caused by children playing with a lighter in a bedroom in a second-floor apartment. Thirty-six adults and nine children from the apartment building were displaced and lost all of their belongings. The damage was estimated at over $1 million.