Firefighter leaps to safety from burning porch
EAST BETHLEHEM TWP. – An East Bethlehem volunteer firefighter narrowly escaped injury Thursday by jumping from the porch roof of a vacant house while fighting a fire in Vesta Heights. Sean Trunzo said he was forced to jump from the roof while he was ventilating the second floor.
“I was knocking out the windows and flames started rolling off the roof, and I couldn’t get down the ladder. It started getting a little hairy,” Trunzo said.
Trunzo said he jumped into the arms of a Richeyville firefighter who had been ventilating the second floor with him, but who had gotten down the ladder before the flames came. Trunzo said his ankle twisted under him when he landed, but he was checked out by Ambulance and Chair and was uninjured.
The fire began shortly before 1 p.m. at 201 Lawrence St. The house was owned by the late Orlando Lorenti. Firefighters were uncertain how long the house had been vacant.
“It’s filled with all kinds of junk and garbage,” said Mark Husek, the chief engineer for the East Bethlehem Volunteer Fire Department. “It will probably burn to the ground before it’s over.”
Flames and thick smoke were still coming from various parts of the structure an hour and a half after the fire was called in. At times the smoke turned dark black; at other times it billowed out in orange clouds. The cold temperatures forced the smoke back down, covering a section of Route 88 far below the fire.
The extreme cold created extra problems for the firefighters. Many could be seen with ice-encrusted helmets and bunker gear. Thick ice was built up along the edges of Lawrence Street. Water from the fire hoses poured down the center of the road.
“It’s going to be even worse when we get done and everything freezes,” Husek said.
Firefighters from East Bethlehem Township, Denbo-Vesta Six, Richeyville, and California were on the scene, with Centerville, Roscoe and West Brownsville were on standby. The fire was first called out at 4:49 p.m., but it rekindled about a half-hour later.