Philadelphia fire kills four, leaves dozens without homes

[shenmue]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/05/us/philadelphia-fire/index.html?c=homepage-t



Awful.

[MrMickeysMom]

1. This is so awful

I live in Pbg area, and upon getting lost a few Friday nights ago towards Philly, (I stayed on 76, didn't take 276), I noticed how choked the major connectors became even at 10:30 PM in South Philly. Heading back to Abington, I saw all this new construction (more affluent area).

I also heard the the firefighter's words, "firefighting is everyone's job, not the fire department". Now, I must ask, as I couldn't help but wonder how long it took for the nearest station to reach that time of night.

When you have as many run down areas and row houses at risk, just WHAT are they asking people to do when they say it's "everyone's job"? Are they admitting how they cannot provide adequate transit time and therefore adequate safety? After all, these people pay taxes, too.

It's a crying shame.

[JPZenger]

2. The fire dept. arrived within 3 minutes of the call

There was a fire station around the corner. It sounds like it was only staffed by one truck. The Dept. says it arrived within 3 minutes, but the home was already engulfed. One neighbor ran to the fire station, and the truck was already leaving.

There are some allegations that someone was setting off fireworks that caused a front porch couch to catch on fire, which quickly set the porch roofs on fire.

I wonder if the people playing with the fireworks didn't call 911 once the fire started. It was early in the morning and most people were asleep.

Lessons to be learned:

1. think about putting a smoke detector near outside windows.

2. Don't keep couches on your front porch, which can be flammable (and also attract rodents).

3. Let's crack down on high explosive fireworks. In PA, retail stores can sell fireworks that are otherwise illegal in PA to someone as long as they show an ID from a different state.

[MrMickeysMom]

3. I had no idea of #3

That's messed up.

[JPZenger]

4. Fire Dept. said it was initially reported as a rubbish fire

The Fire Dept. said the initial report was classified as a rubbish fire, not a house fire, so it didn't get a large initial response.

[JPZenger]

5. This article has details about the firefighters' response

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140708_Records_show_several_factors_affected_timely_response_to_fatal_fire.html

The firefighters were delayed a couple minutes because the nearby fire engine was on another call, and the nearby ladder truck was not sent out immediately because it was classified as a rubbish fire. However, the fire spread extremely fast.