| This afternoon at 15:07 hrs the Box Alarm was put in for a reported house fire in the area of 2761 Walker Court in the Marley Acres subdivision of District 1. Heavy smoke was showing as crews were approaching the scene, units arrived at 2785 Walker Court with a working fire in a 2 1/2 story SFD with much of the first floor engulfed in flames.
Attacked 64 was the first piece up the 250 foot narrow driveway and put multiple waterlines into operation. Truck 20 took the plug at the corner of Walker and Simmons Circle and laid out 1,000' of 5" supply line to the driveway. Engine 64 did a forward lay up the driveway to supply their Attack with 20 Truck being the relay. Engines 20 and 22 supplied and maintained an auxiliary 3" supply line as a reserve to the 5.
Hands and support equipment were provided by Engine 87, Ladder 30, Special Operations 78 and Rescue 20. Multiple portable masterstreams as well as multiple waterlines were utilized to battle the blaze. Crews performed defensive operations from all sides of the structure trying to gain an upper hand on the fire that had a significant head start before being detected by neighbors.
Command was informed that the homeowners were out of town in the state of Florida at the time but that a family member was supposed to be at the home. At this time all efforts were made to make contact with the person who was staying at the home though Murrysville PD. After all attempts were exhausted that person was determined to be unaccounted for and the state police Fire Marshal was brought to the scene for a potential loss of life fire.
Once the Fire Marshal was on scene a Murrysville Public Works backhoe was used to sift through the charred remains of the house to look for the possible occupant of the residence who was still unaccounted for. Fortunately during the process of sifting through the debris the family member who was staying at the home arrived at the scene unharmed by the fire.
All crews operating at the scene worked hard to bring the bulk of the fire under control with in an hour and worked even harder at dousing the remainder of the hot spots and flare-ups for the next 4 hours. The Medics on scene did an excellent job of providing water for hydration as well as transporting equipment back and forth with the use of their Gator vehicle. Units on scene were from Murrysville, White Valley, Sardis, Export, Delmont, Harrison City as well as Medic 610, MPD, Public Works, Salvation Army, Allegheny Power and Dominions Gas. Also numerous companies were used to fill empty stations in town and also responded to a missing child call in Duff Park during the fire. |
