READING, Pa. – Whatever your career or occupation may be, or how long you’ve been doing it, you know there are days you don’t forget.
“They found a deceased adult on the first floor right by the stairs and as the crews proceeded, many reports from the neighbors that children were trapped,” said Reading Fire Chief James Stoudt.
The same goes for our first responders, as Chief Stoudt recalls the Huyett Street fire that took the lives of one adult and four children in 1997.
“When you have a tragic fire like that, a fatality involved especially with children, it impacts everybody in many ways,” he said.
We’re standing near where Huyett Street used to be. According to Chief Stoudt, some fires have such an impact that they change the landscape of where they happened.
“I can’t speak for the residents, but I think it did impact them to a point where most of the block became vacated and redevelopment happened and the properties were bought and two new businesses are back in there now,” Stoudt said.
The Reading Fire Department empathizes with what other neighboring departments have to face on a daily basis – especially when people can’t be saved. These types of fire are also used to educate those coming into the force.
“Our training division does touch on lot of the multiple fatal fires with our recruits as they’re in the academy,” Stoudt added.