Crews Battle Row House Fire In Wilkinsburg
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WILKINSBURG (KDKA) -- Crews battled a row house fire in Wilkinsburg on Friday afternoon.
It broke out just before 12:30 p.m. in a building in the 1700 block of Paul Court.
Firefighters could do little to stop the flames from spreading.
"It's a multi-family dwelling, two stories, wood-frame dwelling. The fire got up into the roof area and did heavy damage to the building," Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones said.
Adrian Lockett, who was inside her apartment with her 3-year-old son when the fire started, is grateful to her neighbors.
"The neighbors, we all kind of banded together," she said, "and they knocked on my door and that's when I came out."
No one was hurt and everyone got out safely. Twelve apartments were either damaged or destroyed. Seven of those units were occupied.
Jones says lightweight construction using gussett plates to hold the wood together didn't help.
"If you look into a gussett plate, it's only, like, 3/8th of an inch deep, so if the wood burns, the metal gets soft, it falls apart," Jones said. "They're very hazardous to firefighters. They've been known to kill firefighters."
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The American Red Cross is assisting the residents.
The apartment complex is owned by Brandywine Management, the same company that had several apartments destroyed by the landslide just below Route 30 in East Pittsburgh. A spokesperson for the company says they will try to assist the displaced residents.
