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Dunmore Chief Says Staffing Cuts Put Lives in Danger at Fire

Dunmore Chief Says Staffing Cuts Put Lives in Danger at Fire - Friday, April 2, 2010 at 04:12AM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Friday April 02 2010
DUNMORE, LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- Firefighters in part of Lackawanna County say staffing cuts are putting lives at risk. And now they say they have proof.

A double block home in Dunmore is a total loss after a fire on Marion Street Thursday evening. Eyewitness News spoke with the fire chief who says recent cuts have put the borough at risk.

Just before 5:00 Thursday, smoke and flames tore through a double-block home at 1320-1322 Marion Street in Dunmore.

Right from the first alarm, firefighters say they were behind. Dumore Fire Chief Chris DeNaples said, We were under the 8-ball right from the beginning. We pulled up here with three guys in one truck due to the staffing cuts council made back in February. We're just lucky someone wasn't hurt or killed here. If it was the middle of the night, the outcome would have been a lot worse."

One person was inside the building at the time. He got out safely. A total of six people are now homeless though.

Jeff Perri owns the building and lives there with his wife and two children. He got a call at work in Tobyhanna and rushed home. I saw the flames when I got off the exit believe it or not, when I got off 380, I saw the flames and smoke from the exit, so I knew it couldn't have been good," he said.

The back of the home sustained the most damage. This is where the fire may have started. The flames were so strong, part of the roof collapsed.

The fire chief hopes to never have a repeat of the lack of staffing that he did at this emergency. Hopefully this will open some eyes up for council members and they'll do the right thing with this in the near future," said DeNaples.

This part of Marion Street is no stranger to fires. In July 2007 the home right next door also burned to the ground. That fire was called arson. The firebug has never been caught.

Today, I don't know what happened. I don't know what was the cause of the fire but I'm sure they did the best they could do," said Perri.
 


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