Duplex Fire in PA Displaces 8 Occupants

Eight people have been displaced, but all are unharmed, after a massive fire ripped through a double-block residence on North Washington Street Sunday evening.

Wilkes-Barre City fire chief Jay Delaney confirmed that all of the occupants of 301-303 N. Washington St. were accounted for after a three-alarm fire broke out around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The American Red Cross has been called in to assist the victims.

The fire was still going around 9 p.m. and crews from Wilkes-Barre City, Kingston/ Forty-Fort and Hanover Township were working to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring structures.

Chief Delaney told reporters that exposures on either side of the double-block were keeping his firefighters busy.

"This is a really labor-intensive fire. It's stuck between the second and third floor, or most of the attic," Delaney said. "It's a lot of pull work for the firefighters having to pull the ceilings down."

Utilities were cut to the property and North Washington Street was blocked off, as was neighboring Beaumont Street, as first responders were called in to fight the fire.

In addition to the exposures on both sides of the structure that had firefighters concerned, Delaney also noted that the longer the fire burned inside, the more the structural integrity of the residence became a possible issue.

"The fire's been burning about 90 minutes," Delaney said around 8 p.m. Sunday night, "so structurally, there's starting to be some concern."

One of the occupants of the double-block said that she had gotten a call from her daughter saying that the fire alarm was going off, leading everyone inside to exit the structure.

The resident said that a neighbor had gone in and said that her second-floor bedroom was on fire.

"I'm in shock," she said as fire crews continued to combat the blaze. "I can't believe this is happening."

There's no word yet on what may have caused the fire.

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