Surviving FFs Recall Fatal '85 PA Blaze: 'Hell Came to Breakfast'

When firefighter Richard “Dick” Boyer responded to a fire call at the Reading YMCA on a bitter cold morning in January 1985, he immediately sensed something wasn’t right.

“The fire hose on the sidewalk was burning, and the handle on the Knox box had melted,” recalled Boyer, 76, a retired Reading fire chief.

In the moments that followed, Boyer would discover the tragic reason that caused a fire so intense it consumed a hose intended to destroy it.

A flashover, a type of incendiary explosion that erupted in the kitchen, unleashed a firestorm that swept down a hallway, through the lobby and up the stairways of the first three floors of the six-story structure at Washington and Reed streets.

In its wake, the killer fire claimed the lives of a firefighter and three YMCA residents, and badly burned two other firefighters.

Firefighter Donald G. Jacobs and a YMCA resident he was rescuing lay in a stairway off the lobby. The intensity of the firestorm, which commonly reach 1,100 degrees, vaporized the acrylic finish on Jacobs’ firefighters ax, reducing its handle to shreds.

Two other resident victims were found in or around the stairway.

Volunteer firefighters Paul N. Hofmann and Terry Royce, conducting a search and rescue mission on the second floor, were trapped amid the firestorm.

Badly burned, both managed to stumble from the burning building onto a fire escape.

In a vignette written for “Journey Into Hell,” a commemorative display at the Reading Area Firefighters Museum, Hofmann wrote a chilling account of his near-death experience.

“Smoke was solid black, and hell came to breakfast,” wrote Hofmann. “I knew I was burning.”

A perfect firestorm

On the 35th anniversary of the fire, retired chief Boyer and Deputy Chief Gary Mogel relived that fateful day of Jan. 28, 1985, during a recent session at the firefighter’s museum.

The fire was intentionally set by Tracy L. Pietrovito, a troubled 17-year-old, who was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in a Pennsylvania prison.

In 2017, he was resentenced to 33 years to life in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that ruled life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional. He remains incarcerated.

Pietrovito set five fires, four in the basement and one in a kitchen/pantry area, Boyer recalled. The basement fires were inconsequential. The kitchen fire turned killer.

The fire might have been quickly suppressed, Boyer and Mogel agreed, were it not for a random series of events that delayed response time.

For one thing, Boyer said, an initial phone call reporting the fire was mistakenly routed to Philadelphia.

And, a YMCA security guard reported smoke in the building to a maintenance man in Laureldale instead of police or the fire department, causing a 15-minute delay.

When firefighters arrived on scene about 5 a.m., the two nearest fire hydrants were frozen.

“It was a perfect storm,” said Mogel, then a 21-year-old volunteer who came close to losing his life. “There’s always a snowball chain of events when you have a fire fatality.”

For the grace of God

When Gary Mogel arrived aboard Engine 3 pumper out of Neversink Fire Co., Deputy Chief Earl R. Bansner assigned him to lay a 2½-inch line into the first floor.

Entering the building he noticed flames lopping over the top of a kitchen door and yelled to a security guard to get residents out of the building.

It was cold out, he recalls, and residents were slow to leave the building.

Mogel ran into complications laying the hose, and left the building. The hydrant outside was frozen and there was no water.

Seconds later, the flashover erupted and consumed just about everything in its deadly wake. A sprinkler system on the three upper floors, Boyer insists, contained the fire and saved the lives of 100 or so residents. About 50, however, were treated for smoke inhalation at St. Joseph and Community General hospitals.

Had he and fellow firefighter Dave Kochel been inside, Mogel said, they would have been in the direct path of the fireball.

“I’m very, very lucky to be alive,” said Mogel, 55, a third-generation Reading firefighter. “I’m here only by the grace of God.”

Mogel’s father, Russell P. Mogel, was Reading fire chief. His grandfather, Paul H. Mogel, drove Engine 11 out of Riverside for 40 years.

Driving through the city, seeing buildings that were once on fire flourish, Mogel takes pride in carrying on a family tradition.

“My wife says I survived the YMCA fire for a reason,” he said. “I guess God had a reason.”

Lingering effects

Firefighter Donald G. Jacobs responded with a crew from Washington Fire Co. No. 2, which included Paul Hofmann, Kevin L. Kulp, Lt. Joseph J. DeCisco and Terry Royce.

Engulfed in black smoke, Hofmann and Royce struggled to find a way off the second floor.

Somehow, Hofmann managed to find the panic bar on a door leading to a fire escape. He burst from the burning building, greeted by a rush of fresh air.

Hofmann pulled Royce, engulfed in flames, to safety, according to an account at the firefighter’s museum.

Standing on the fire escape, Reading police Officer Rudy assisted in pulling Royce to safety.

Royce’s coat was so hot, Rudy dropped him as the excessive heat penetrated the officer’s leather gloves, burning both hands.

“That’s how hot Terry was,” said Boyer, who retired as chief in 1996. “The officer had two pairs of gloves on, and still his hands were burned.”

On the 35th anniversary, Royce posted an impassioned memoir on Facebook.

In Jacobs, he lost a partner and a friend. Another friend, Hofmann was badly burned. And fellow “Washies” Kulp and DiCisco risked their lives searching for he and Hofmann.

“It forever changed the Reading fire department, and it forever changed all of us,” Royce declared.

Then, he added, “Rest in peace City of Reading firefighter, and my friend, Donald G. Jacobs. We will honor you and remember you always.”

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