{"id":168324,"date":"2026-04-17T06:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168324\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:49:08","slug":"firefighters-rescue-victim-from-2-alarm-house-fire-in-exeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168324\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighters rescue victim from 2-alarm house fire in Exeter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crews rescued one person from a fire Thursday evening that severely damaged a home in Exeter Township.<\/p>\n<p>Initial reports of a structure fire with entrapment in the 1100 block of Claire Drive came in about 4:45 p.m. Multiple tankers, ladder trucks, rescue engines and medics were called to the scene.<\/p>\n<p>A deck attached to the single-story manufactured home was on fire, trapping one male resident inside, initial reports said.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters approaching the scene reported a large column of smoke and heavy flames throughout the rear of the building. A second alarm was struck.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrews immediately went into rescue operations (when they arrived),\u201d said Chris Jordan, Exeter fire chief. \u201cThey removed one victim through a first floor window.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One firefighter was taken to the Reading Hospital for evaluation for smoke inhalation, and multiple others were treated at the scene, Jordan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is doing well,\u201d Jordan said of the transported firefighter.<\/p>\n<p>The victim also was transported to Reading Hospital, according to Jordan. His current condition was unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan said crews were faced with challenging conditions that complicated gaining access to the house, he said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Crews faced challenging conditions that complicated access to the home on Claire Drive in Exeter, firefighters said. (Courtesy of Chris Jordan)\" width=\"1280\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Exeter-Claire-Dr-Fire-2.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1553255\" \/>Crews faced challenging conditions that complicated access to the home on Claire Drive in Exeter, firefighters said.  (Courtesy of Chris Jordan)<\/p>\n<p>The fire was placed under control about an hour after crews arrived. The house was a total loss, Jordan said.<\/p>\n<p>It was unknown whether any other residents were displaced from the home, firefighters said.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Jordan, fire chief Emeritus, said the crews quickly arrived at the scene from a previous mulch fire at a nearby Redner\u2019s grocery store.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was very heroic what the guys did (during the search and rescue),\u201d Bob Jordan said. \u201cThe guys at Exeter go above and beyond. As an ex-fire chief, I\u2019m very proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Crews used axes and other tools to gain entry to a burning home on Claire Drive in Exeter. (Courtesy of Chris Roberts)\" width=\"768\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Exeter-Claire-Dr-fire-tools.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1553256\" \/>Crews used axes and other tools to gain entry to a burning home on Claire Drive in Exeter. (Courtesy of Chris Roberts)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"A house fire on Claire Drive in Exeter prompted a large response from the Exeter Township Fire Department. (Courtesy of Chris Jordan)\" width=\"768\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Exeter-Claire-Drive-fire-apparatus.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1553257\" \/>A house fire on Claire Drive in Exeter prompted a large response from the Exeter Township Fire Department. (Courtesy of Chris Jordan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crews rescued one person from a fire Thursday evening that severely damaged a home in Exeter Township. Initial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,1411,422,128,130,129,75784],"class_list":{"0":"post-168324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-exeter-township","10":"tag-fire","11":"tag-reading-city","12":"tag-reading-city-headlines","13":"tag-reading-city-news","14":"tag-trapped-victim"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168324","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=168324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}