Emergency responders were called to knock down a destructive fire at a Bethlehem Township home on Jodi Court during Tuesday’s sweltering heat.
The garage and the second floor of the home in the township’s Wagner Farms area were badly damaged, and the fire spread to a nearby shed. Several local emergency crews were alerted to the fire after 2 p.m.
No one was home at the time the fire started, and the family dog was safely removed without harm, according to township police.
Firefighters labored in dangerously hot and humid conditions that persisted throughout the afternoon. High temperatures extended into the low 90s with real-feel heat index values around 95 degrees across the Lehigh Valley.
The township’s Nancy Run Fire Co. reported the fire under control at 2:23 p.m. and out as of 3:02 p.m.
The fire company later Tuesday afternoon responded to a tractor-trailer rollover crash with fire on Route 33 South near Interstate 78. It was the township fire crews’ fifth emergency call of the day.
Township fire officials put out a call for donations of bottled water as supplies ran low amid the back-to-back incidents and unseasonably hot conditions.