![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/REG-L-Fire651NorthNinth1655.jpg\")
Members of the Reading fire marshal’s office investigate the cause of a three-alarm fire early Sunday that started in a home at 651 N. Ninth St. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\nA three-alarm fire ripped through a Reading rowhome early Sunday, sending a family of four to the hospital and displacing at least 20 people.<\/p>\n
According to Reading Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss, fire crews were called to the 600 block of North Ninth Street about 3:20 a.m. after several 911 calls were made from neighbors in the area.<\/p>\n
Firefighters discovered a rowhome at 651 N. Ninth St. with heavy fire on the first floor spewing out of the building\u2019s windows. The flames were spreading quickly to adjacent buildings.<\/p>\n
Firefighters entered the building, went up an open stairwell and rescued a juvenile from the second floor. Another juvenile escaped the blaze by jumping from a second-floor window, Searfoss said Monday.<\/p>\n
A mother and a third child escaped the burning building on their own.<\/p>\n
Members of the Reading fire marshal’s office investigate the cause of a three-alarm fire early Sunday that started in a home at 651 N. Ninth St. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
All four were taken to Reading Hospital, Searfoss said, and one of the juveniles remained hospitalized Monday morning.<\/p>\n
A second alarm was called about 15 minutes after firefighters arrived, Searfoss said, and a third alarm was called around 4:10 a.m. Firefighters battled the blaze until about 5 a.m.<\/p>\n
Firefighters were called back to the scene around 11 a.m. Sunday when the blaze rekindled and was smoldering.<\/p>\n
The flames damaged homes at 649, 651, 653 and 655 N. Ninth. A total of at least 20 people were displaced and are being assisted by the American Red Cross of Berks County,\u00a0Searfoss said.<\/p>\n
Searfoss said two firefighters suffered minor injuries while fighting the fire, including one who was hurt while rescuing the juvenile on the second floor.<\/p>\n
He said firefighters showed amazing bravery, entering the building to search for trapped people even before water had begun to be sprayed on the blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had members searching in front of hose line, which is extremely dangerous,\u201d Searfoss said. \u201cIt paid dividends, it resulted in saving lives and property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Searfoss said a cause and damage estimate for the fire have not been determined. The fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-alarm fire ripped through a Reading rowhome early Sunday, sending a family of four to the hospital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-305360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305360","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=305360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}