Abandoned wooden water main burns near Shenandoah Heights
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Shenandoah Heights firefighters at the scene of a water main fire on Jan. 1, 2024.
SHENANDOAH HEIGHTS – The New Year got off to a bizarre start for Shenandoah Heights firefighters, as a wooden pipe that once carried water into Shenandoah for the town’s earliest settlers instead carried fire.
Smoke blanketed Route 924 in West Mahanoy Township between Shenandoah Heights and the Pattersonville/Brandonville split throughout much of the night, but a source of that smoke wasn’t located until around 5am.
Flames could be seen from the highway about 100 yards into the woodlands.
Shenandoah Heights firefighters made their way to the site and found a wooden water main aflame.
The main had burned for a distance south of there by the time firefighters arrived.
It previously carried water between the Kehley Run reservoirs, specifically Number Four on the west side of Route 924 and Number Three on the east, above the former Sandy Beach Recreation Area.
The reservoirs and wooden pipes were laid in Shenandoah’s formative years and served town for decades until changes in regulations no longer allowed their use as a water source.
Smoke could be seen throughout the pipe channel as firefighters handled the fire.
It was not clear Monday morning where or how the fire started.
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