READING, Pa. \u2014 An overnight fire forced families out of their homes and into the cold early Wednesday morning in Reading.<\/p>\n
The flames tore through three rowhomes, 113, 115, and 117 N. Fifth St., around 1 a.m., sending residents scrambling in their pajamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had fire from front to back on multiple floors in multiple buildings,\u201d said Deputy Chief Richard Kuhn of the Reading Fire Department.<\/p>\n
Officials say two people suffered minor injuries. More than a dozen residents were displaced, and all three buildings were left with significant damage.<\/p>\n
\u201c117 took the most damage. The upper two floors are essentially gone,\u201d Kuhn added.<\/p>\n
For Shawn McKee, who lived on the first floor of 117, the biggest fear wasn\u2019t just the flames \u2014 it was the possibility of losing his cat, Miss Kitty, who he thought was gone.<\/p>\n
But hours later, neighbors found her hiding inside the building, alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a tough one,\u201d McKee said. \u201cThe fire started upstairs, and she was right here on the first floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neighbors said they woke up to the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came down\u2026 I smelled the smoke. I said, \u2018What the hell is going on?\u2019 Then I come down here, I see this,\u201d said Daniel Neheiser, who lives nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Neheiser, like many others, didn\u2019t know the residents personally, but stayed to make sure people and pets were safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was worried about the people inside. And the animals and stuff like that. Maybe they’ll start a fundraiser for these people,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody lives in there no more. Probably the Red Cross is taking care of the people now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The American Red Cross says it has opened 13 cases to assist those impacted, helping a total of 38 people, including 10 children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re looking at things like prescription medication replacements. We have trained, state-certified disaster mental health volunteers who are helping, and have talked with several of the families today just to deal with the trauma of being involved in a fire of this magnitude,\u201d said Peter Brown, with the American Red Cross of Pennsylvania Rivers Chapter.<\/p>\n
McKee and other families are now figuring out what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken\u2026 but also grateful,\u201d he said. \u201cThe community\u2019s stepped up. The Red Cross, the fire guys\u2026 everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2014 An overnight fire forced families out of their homes and into the cold early Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1305,422,7656,28,128,130,129,5888],"class_list":["post-9208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-city-of-reading","tag-fire","tag-n-5th-street","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-red-cross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9208","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=9208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}