4-Alarm Fire Damages Beaver Co. Laundromat
BEAVER FALLS (KDKA) – A Beaver County laundromat was damaged by a four-alarm fire late Saturday night.
According to officials at the scene, the fire broke out at The City Laundromat in Beaver Falls on Seventh Avenue around 11:30 p.m.
"I [saw] the smoke while letting my dogs out and smoke was a couple hundred feet in the air already before we were even dispatched," Beaver Falls Fire Chief Mark Stowe said.
Stowe said the fire started in The City Laundromat, but heavy smoke and flames moved quickly through the building.
"The first floor was pretty much fully engulfed. The midsection up to the front was engulfed in flames. The fire was quickly spreading up to the second and third floors," Stowe said.
The State Police fire marshal is investigating the cause, but it is not believed to be suspicious. The fire was discovered by the owner when she saw smoke inside the business from a video tape monitor she keeps at her home nearby
The fire also threatened apartments next door over D&G's Pizza. Frances Buck lives in a rear apartment and was one of the residents evacuated.
"I thought it was small, but then it went like boom and it got larger. Smoke and glass was flying, apartments were smoking. It was really, really bad," Buck said.
The nearly 50-year-old pizza shop suffered some smoke and water damage. Several apartments took minor smoke damage, but the laundromat and several unoccupied apartments were heavily damaged.
"It was definitely pretty hot in the first floor of the building and in these old buildings, the fire spreads right up through void spaces and that's exactly what happened here," Stowe said.
No one was hurt and about 75 firefighters from ten neighboring departments helped bring the fire under control.
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