Fire officials are still investigating the cause of an apartment building fire on Tuesday that killed a 4-year-old boy (a 5-year-old, according to some reports). The fire broke out at about 1:30 p.m. at the West Park Apartments, a 19-story public-housing building on Busti and Holden streets.
The child’s mother and 3-year-old brother were injured in the fire. The mother and a male resident of the building saved the younger child from the apartment engulfed with fire. Then the woman returned to the apartment and tried to rescue her older son but was badly hurt, Philly.com reports. The firefighters found the boy alive under a bed, but he later died in the hospital.
Fire officials said a burst main near 42nd and Market streets that required the evacuation of a fire station across the street from high-rise slowed response time.
Update (08/06): A three-story residential building at 4238 Chestnut Street was on fire, the Fire Commissioner’s Office confirms. The fire was reported about 4:10 p.m. on Sunday and extinguished by 4:50 p.m. No injuries were reported.
A reader, Mike, reported a fire on Sunday at about 4:00 p.m. on the 4200 Block of Chestnut Street. Mike said that over a dozen fire trucks responded to the fire: “I saw the fire and tried to break in before the fire Dept. arrived. Smoke detectors were sounding and large flames were pouring from the side windows at the rear. But I could not open the door pounding on it with a large piece of lumber (about a 4′ piece of 4×10″). Fire department was on scene within moments and took over.”
It’s not known if anybody was injured in the fire. Stop back for more information.
Seventeen row homes were evacuated last night as a result of a three-alarm fire that started in a garage at 52nd and Pentridge, NBC reports (see video below). The fire began around 11 p.m. and quickly moved through.
Nearly 70 residents were displaced, 23 of them were transported to a Red Cross station set up at Ann H. Shaw Middle School on Warrington Avenue. No injuries were reported and no homes were seriously damaged.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Neighbors said that kids were setting off fireworks nearby before the fire broke out, according to NBC.
The Fire Marshall’s office is investigating a fire at a three-story residential building near 45th and Baltimore that broke out early this afternoon. Firefighters were called to the scene at 12:49 p.m. and the fire was out about 20 minutes later. No injuries were reported.
Here are some photos of the fire submitted by neighbors.
We couldn’t find the residents of the house on the scene. If anyone knows them and they need help, please let us know and we’ll pass it along.
8:15 p.m. We went to the scene. The fire is extinguished, but the top two floors appear to have been destroyed. It’s a duplex and the adjacent house at 5024 Cedar Ave. also sustained some damage.
7:23 p.m. A reader reports a fire at 5026 Cedar Avenue this evening. Stay tuned as we are trying to get more information on it.
Four people, including two children, died in an early-morning fire that broke out in a rowhome at 5250 Chancellor Street. The children, 2 and 4 years old, died at Children’s Hospital where they were transported with severe burns. The other victims are the children’s mother, 23-year-old Rishya Jenkins and grandfather, Seneca McClendon, 75, a retired postal worker known as Mr. Chuck, Philly.com reports.
The fire was reported about 4:42 a.m. and declared under control at 5:23 a.m. Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said “firefighters found nothing to indicate there were working smoke detectors in the rowhouse.” The fire apparently broke out on the first floor and its cause is under investigation.
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