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Pocono News Section
One Hurt, 22 Displaced in Bloomsburg Fire
One Hurt, 22 Displaced in Bloomsburg Fire - Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 6:45PM EST
Reported by: Kyla Campbell
Sunday, Oct 25, 2009 @ 06:45pm EDT
BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY -- One person was burned, a firefighter taken to the hospital, and 22 people left without a place to stay after flames ripped through three buildings and licked a fourth along the 100 block of West Main Street in downtown.
Firefighters had concerns the entire block would go up in flames. It took three hours to put out those flames, and crews continued dousing hot spots into the afternoon.
"Our door was actually kicked down my officers. It pretty much felt like a raid, they just told us to get out," said Bloomsburg University Senior, Mark Webb, who was asleep inside his apartment on the corner of Main and Jefferson Streets for two years. "The building itself wasn't the primary building that was on fire, so we really weren't too worried about it. But over the next three hours, we just watched as the fire developed and burned down our house."
Four businesses were destroyed. None of the owners wanted to go on-camera, but two told us they had insurance and their tenants were okay.
"It's like oh, my gosh, it's a shock," said Michelle Wehner who works at the university and had concerns for students and a relative who live on the block. Everyone she knows got out safely. "Four buildings. That's a big number to hit on Main Street in town."
The fire chief tells us the flames broke out in the kitchen of the second floor apartment above the beauty salon at 148 West Main Street. He says the flames went out the kitchen window and caught the next-door building on fire.
"Then, it proceeded across the roof, inside underneath the metal roof, and caught the third building on fire," said Bloomsburg Fire Chief Hugh Gross.
He says a person living in the apartment where the fire started was taken to the Lehigh Valley Hospital burn unit. More than 20 others got out safely. Bloomsburg University and the Red Cross are helping those who lost everything they had. | | |
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