Crews Battle Fire At Building Housing Multiple Businesses In Monroeville
MONROEVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) - A fire broke out at a bike shop near the Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Monroeville.
It started late Tuesday afternoon at the building that houses GNC, Pro Bike + Run and AT&T. Five fire departments were battling the fire in intense heat and humidity.
NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene where firefighters could be seen on the roof.
People inside the building say the fire appeared to start in the back and seemed to come out of nowhere. Others in the store saw and smelled the smoke and flames and gathered everyone to get out.
The Pro Bike + Run shop says they've been busy, especially because of the pandemic, and they just got a big shipment of bikes in.
"This year especially everybody wants to get out and ride bikes so it's definitely a shame that this happened. Now we just got a whole shipment of bikes that are potentially ruined. It was definitely bad timing for sure," said general manager Jordan Cherry.
Firefighters had to keep taking breaks because of the heat and humidity.
"Within minutes crews were already overcome by exterior heat and the heat outside," said Monroeville Volunteer Fire Company #1 Chief Jason Sonafelt.
KDKA was told there was heavy smoke and zero visibility on the second floor when they arrived.
"By the time they knew there was fire, there was already flames that they could clearly see and they had to get out of the building," said Cherry.
The GNC and AT&T stores were seemingly spared from damage thanks to the fire falls.
No one was injured. There's been no word on the cause of the fire. The fire started in the shoe room, according to Craig Cozza, who owns the shop. He added that there is about a half-million dollars in damages.
