Fire at McKeesport senior high-rise forces evacuation
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (KDKA) -- A fire forced residents from a senior high-rise in McKeesport on Friday.
The fire chief confirmed a mattress fire started on the seventh floor of McKeesport Towers on Sixth Street at around 2:40 p.m. on Friday. A resident there said all 12 floors of the building were evacuated. There were no sprinklers in the building, officials said.
The deputy fire chief said at least four were transported and at least two of them were in critical condition.
Police and firefighters have been loading tenants onto buses and taking them a short distance away to cool off and get pizza. Roughly 200 people were displaced. Residents will stay at Crawford Village for the time being. It's unclear how long they'll be displaced.
One woman in a wheelchair said she was worried about how she was going to get out, but a firefighter escorted her to an elevator.
"The fire department came and brought me down on the elevator, but they held the elevator for me. It was scary," said resident Cathy Callis.
"I was thinking, 'Well, God's going to take me,'" Callis said.
The fire was contained to one apartment where only one person was home, the deputy fire chief said. There's fire damage in that unit but primarily smoke damage on the floor above and water damage on the floor below.
Oryion Rivers had just got home from school when the first started.
"I thought it was going to be a regular Friday," Rivers said. "I ain't think this was going to happen."
Deputy Fire Chief Gene Esken said crews got the flames out within minutes, but the challenge was evacuations.
"It's a long process that takes a lot of manpower," Esken said.
The Salvation Army and Red Cross are helping. The fire marshal is investigating.
In an update from McKeesport Housing Authority Deputy Executive Director Diane Raible, she said the residents who were being sheltered at a local gym have returned home. Twenty-six units are offline, and tenants in those units will be transferred to vacant units.
Only the 37 people who were being sheltered in the gym returned as of Sunday night. The rest will begin to come in on Monday.
