Man killed, woman, child injured escaping Lansford house fire
Police Chief: Good Samaritans expended every effort to rescue family
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Firefighters at the scene of Monday's fire in Lansford.
LANSFORD, Carbon County – A man was killed, and a woman and child were hurt when flames broke out at a double block home here Monday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to 332 West Bertsch Street around 4:45pm for a reported house fire.
Lansford Police Chief Jack Soberick said the fire was reported fully involved with entrapment, with children involved.
“There were civilians heroically trying to expend every effort to make entry into that house. They were throwing ladders, they were trying to get in through windows, they came in through the back door, because the kids were on the second and third floor,” Soberick said of the scene when he and Officer Cody Searfoss arrived. “As we were doing that, the fire had extended so far that the mother jumped from a window, holding an infant in her arms.”
She and her infant, he said, were injured in the leap and were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest in Allentown for treatment.
“Another child jumped from the second floor. He was burned,” Soberick said. “I don’t know who got the other child out, because it was like pandemonium.”
The father, he said, didn’t make it out.
“Our last reports were that he went back in or was trying to make entry to rescue the kids. We made every effort to look for him,” Soberick said.
The fire “roared” through 332 and spread to neighboring homes at 330 and 334 via windy conditions, and a second alarm was struck.
“The wind was just driving it into the next house,” Lansford Fire Chief Joe Greco said. “The first line we got into service was to try to protect the exposure [at 334]. We did for the most part, but it did sustain damage to the attic and second floor.”
Greco said 330 and 332, an adjoined duplex, suffered structural collapses, which hampered firefighting efforts along with the wind.
Soberick commended the efforts of the Good Samaritans who tried to help.
“Not only the neighborhood, but people that were just driving by expended every effort, it was heartmoving and it’s tragic, what the outcome is,” Soberick said.
No names of victims were released.
Greco said the homes at 330 and 332 suffered extensive damage, while a home at 334 suffered fire damage to the attic and water damage downstairs. A home at 328 had melted siding on the fire-side of the building.
Some firefighters, he said, were evaluated for trips and falls, but no major injuries were reported.
Firefighters from Lansford, Summit Hill, Coaldale, Tamaqua, Tuscarora, Jim Thorpe, Weatherly, Nesquehoning, West Penn, and more responded to the scene along with Tamaqua Fire Police, Lehighton Ambulance, Mahoning Valley Ambulance, among others.
The fire is under investigation, Soberick said, and a state police fire marshal has been called in.
Fire crews remained on scene past 9:30pm.
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