ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A fast-moving sequence of three fires Thursday night stretched Allentown Fire Department resources across the city, requiring extensive mutual aid and prompting renewed warnings about the importance of smoke alarms.<\/p>\n
Just before 8 p.m. Jan. 8, firefighters were dispatched to a large commercial structure fire in the 1100 block of N. Irving Street, where heavy smoke was pouring from the building, officials said.<\/p>\n
A working fire was declared and at 8:07 p.m. a second alarm was struck, according to Capt. Jonathan Hammel, captain of public affairs.<\/p>\n
As that incident escalated, a second fire was reported in the 400 block of Washington Street.<\/p>\n
A third, much smaller fire followed shortly after.<\/p>\n
At least 15 departments provide aid<\/p>\n
Hammel said mutual aid \u2014 response from neighboring departments \u2014 made all the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this juncture I have 15 fire departments and very well could have missed one of those,\u201d Hammel said Friday morning, describing the scale of response.<\/p>\n
The Irving Street fire ultimately went to a third alarm, drawing a large concentration of Allentown units and mutual aid companies.<\/p>\n
Two firefighters sustained minor injuries, while no civilians were hurt, fire officials said. <\/p>\n
Crews remained on scene into the early morning hours performing overhaul and fire watch, and a hazmat unit was requested as a precaution.<\/p>\n
The cause remains under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fire scene on Washington, we only had one engine company there besides some of the administrative staff like myself who responded into that scene from home,” Hammel said. <\/p>\n
“Otherwise, that was handled almost entirely with our mutual aid companies.”<\/p>\n
That fire, which officials said broke out on the third floor and spread through concealed void spaces, was upgraded to a second alarm.<\/p>\n
Five residents were displaced, one of whom received assistance from the American Red Cross. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
‘Would have been much different’<\/p>\n
Hammel said the city backfills each station when fires reach a certain alarm, even on a single fire, so fire stations \u201chave the same capabilities that residents have every day of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the cluster of fires so far this season has followed a familiar pattern for the department.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally it seems to go in ebb and flows,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I first got promoted to this role, we went three months without having a bigger fire. The lid came off the jar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is for the guys and certainly whatever we can do to help keep people safe.”<\/p>\n
Capt. Jonathan Hammel, Allentown Fire Department captain of public affairs.<\/p>\n
Beyond the operational challenges, Hammel emphasized that modern fires move faster and burn hotter than in the past, leaving occupants with far less time to escape.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily the home, but what we put in our homes \u2014 the smoke is so much more toxic, it puts off a lot more heat, a lot more particulate in the smoke, which is generally more easily ignitable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe use to have 10 to 15 minutes to get out of the house. Now it\u2019s about 5 minutes or less, and in many cases it’s less depending on what’s burning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He urged residents to ensure working smoke alarms are installed and maintained.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely a reminder to check the smoke alarms \u2014 we can\u2019t stress that enough,\u201d Hammel said. \u201cI\u2019m trying everywhere I can to show people” how important it is.<\/p>\n
For Hammel, the concern is both public safety and firefighter safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is for the guys and certainly whatever we can do to help keep people safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A release from the department highlighted its appreciation for all the assistance provided by mutual aid partners that responded to a fire scene or provided coverage for residents of the city while all resources were committed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout their continued partnership and assistance, the outcomes of last night\u2019s incidents would have been much different,\u201d the release stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A fast-moving sequence of three fires Thursday night stretched Allentown Fire Department resources across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,71845,71846,644,71847,71850,71851,121,71848,120,71849],"class_list":["post-158674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-capt-of-public-affairs","tag-allentown-fire-capt-jonathan-hammel","tag-allentown-fire-department","tag-allentown-fire-department-mutual-aid","tag-allentown-fires","tag-allentown-fires-thursday-night","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-n-irving-street-fire","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-washington-st-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}