PA Firefighters Rescue 12 from Windows of Burning Apartment

Firefighters used ladders to rescue about a dozen people from windows in a fire at a Brentwood apartment building Sunday morning.

The fire at Brentwood Manor in the 3300 block of Brownsville Road was reported around 9:30 a.m., said John Balkovec, deputy chief of Brentwood Emergency Medical Services.

“The first units arriving on scene found heavy smoke and fire upon arrival, also people hanging out of windows,” Balkovec said. “Approximately 12 people were rescued by the fire department upon their arrival from windows.”

Eight people, including a couple of children, suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to a hospital for evaluation, Balkovec said. One firefighter suffered a medical issue and was also taken to a hospital, he said.

An unknown number of pets were also rescued, Balkovec said.

More than 40 people lived in the building’s 36 units, Balkovec said.

A building manager, who would not provide his name, said two of the apartments were empty.

Firefighters from 10 companies were on the scene, along with numerous other emergency service agencies. Balkovec said it took firefighters about a half hour to get the fire under control. The Allegheny County Fire Marshal and the Brentwood fire department were investigating the cause.

Balkovec said the fire started in a lower level of the building, which has four stories at the front, and worked its way up to the top.

The building manager said the fire started in a first floor unit at a front corner of the building. That appeared consistent with charring up the side of the building, and the blackened interior visible through a broken window.

A neighbor across the street, who would not give her name, said she saw smoke and flames from the same area.

Jasmine Little said she was sleeping in her apartment on the top floor when the fire alarm went off. She’s lived there about a year.

“I opened my door to see if everything was OK and the smoke started coming in,” she said.

Little said she got her cat and got out.

“I ran down the steps through the smoke like Superman,” she said. “I’m thankful everybody is alive.”

While Balkovec said the building was uninhabitable and its residents were not being allowed back inside, Little and others were later let in to check their homes and retrieve some belongings.

Ashley Schultz brought a few things out to her car from her apartment, which is on the opposite side from where the fire is suspected to have started on the first floor and at the back of the building. Nothing was burned, but smoke was on everything.

The recent death of her father, the pressures of the covid-19 pandemic and memories of losing a friend in a fire in upstate New York in 2012 were all weighing on her.

“I’m very broken down, panic stricken, in shock,” she said.

Schultz said she has lived in the building for about three years. After getting home around 7:30 a.m. from UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, where she works as a patient services coordinator and clerk, Schultz said she had laid down and was almost asleep when the fire broke out.

“I had this weird feeling to get up and go to my door,” she said. “As soon as I stood next to my door that’s when the alarm started going off.”

Schultz felt her door. It wasn’t hot, so she opened it. That’s when she saw the black smoke.

Unable to go out a window, Schultz said she grabbed her phone and keys and crawled down the hall to the front door.

Schultz said she would be staying with friends or getting help from the Red Cross, which responded to help the building’s residents.

“We are currently assisting impacted residents … at an off-site location,” the Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania said on Twitter. “Response teams are adhering to all possible safety measures, including social distancing and remote casework where possible.”

Schultz said she has rental insurance, but said she knew one neighbor didn’t have any.

“I’m just glad everybody got out,” she said.

Balkovec said the fire was declared a “mass casualty incident,” which he said is done whenever the first ambulance on scene is overwhelmed.

A neighbor, who would not give his name, said fire departments arrived quickly and praised their response.

“I can’t praise enough on how everybody did a fantastic job working together as a team, from EMS to police to fire. Everybody did a great job,” Balkovec said. “We didn’t lose any lives and that’s the most important thing.”

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©2020 The Valley News-Dispatch (Tarentum, Pa.)

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