By Alex Lloyd Gross
A one alarm fire destroyed a three story twin house, and damaged several adjacent houses with smoke. Ladder trucks were extended to those houses to help firefighters place water where they wanted it, and also to protect the exposures. The blaze, destroyed the house on the 4900 block of Rawle Street just after noon today, February 3, 2016. Luckily, there was no one home. no one was hurt.
Neighbors said that the house is usually occupied during the daytime. The cause is still under investigation. It appears to have started on the first floor and extended to the top floor. Firefighters were hampered by a defective hydrant on Tulip Street that would not shut off. Water Department crews were called to fix it. area streets were closed to traffic for several hours, until all of the apparatus could remove the houses from the road and secure the crews.
Resident stood by and watched in horror as a friend’s house was burned and destroyed. The house was rendered uninhabitable.