Fire strikes Connellsville again
CONNELLSVILLE – Large yellow hoses filled with thousands of gallons of water covered the South Pittsburgh Street and Fairview Avenue intersection Wednesday as firefighters battled yet another early morning fire. Investigators have not ruled on the cause of the fire, although they are treating it as suspicious.
The building is owned by Nancy Fritsky and Joe Borris Jr. and houses the Nancy Borris Beauty Salon and the shuttered Comfort Corner Shoes. Two apartments above the beauty salon were occupied.
City police Chief Stephen Cooper said that fire investigators had yet to sift through the rubble remaining from the fire to sufficiently determine the exact cause and origin of the blaze.
“It appears the building is a total loss,” he speculated. “We’re interviewing the tenants and owners and anyone who was nearby at the time of the fire.
“There was no one in the vacant portion of the building (where it is suspected the fire started), however, there was power. Right now we’re going to call it suspicious.”
As employees hurried to their downtown city offices to escape the cold shortly before 9 a.m., whistles and sirens broke the quiet as fire, police and ambulance personnel raced to the scene.
Nancy Bigam had been at the family-owned beauty salon for nearly an hour when a tenant from an upstairs apartment came in to say that she could smell smoke.
“I didn’t smell anything,” said Bigam as she watched the gray smoke fill the sky from across the street. “I didn’t see or hear anything.”
A telephone call was immediately placed to 9-1-1. Apartment tenants still dressed in only their nightclothes hurried out of the building to a neighbor’s home.
Rick Adobato, Fayette EMS operations director, said the three adults escaped without injury from the 8:44 a.m. fire.
As fire swept through the closed shoe store, nearby residents gathered along the streets and immediately concluded that the fire was intentionally set.
“Nothing is safe anymore,” said an unidentified bystander. “Everybody is afraid to leave their homes, afraid something like this might happen to them.”
Army veteran John Crouser leaned against a stone wall at Cameron Court and watched firefighters position ladders to access the third floor of the brick-and-aluminum-sided building as fire breached the roof.
“They need to catch whoever is doing this,” he said. “Someone is going to get killed.”
In late November, Crouser, a city resident, watched as an apartment building across from his Gallatin Avenue home burnt and displaced its tenants.
Several arson-related fires have struck the south side area over the past 16 months.
“I walk through my neighborhood every afternoon and evening,” he said. “I just look to see if there’s anyone around that shouldn’t be.”
At one point, responding firefighters were alerted by blaring horns to exit the building as the flames intensified.
One Connellsville Township Volunteer Fire Co. firefighter suffered minor injuries when floors collapsed inside the building.
“He’s scraped up a little bit, but he’s all right,” said Bob Lieberger, township firefighter. “He got back up and went back in again.”
James Tanda, supervisory agent with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said that agents had been dispatched to the scene to assist the local police department and the state police fire marshal.
“We’re still completing our investigation,” he said. “We are not leaping to any conclusions. We have to look at everything before we determine a cause.”
The ATF partnered with the city nearly a year ago after the Burn’s Drug Store and an adjacent apartment building was targeted by an arsonist.
The city has sustained 24 arson-related fires since October 2003. The fires have destroyed or caused damage to homes and apartment buildings along with businesses.
The ATF is offering up to a $10,000 reward for information about the fires while the Fayette County Crime Stoppers has posted up to a $4,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for starting the fires. The city has also contributed $1,000 toward the reward fund.
In addition to the city police department, city fire department, Fayette EMS and Connellsville Township, emergency personnel from New Haven Hose Volunteer Fire Co., South Connellsville, Uniontown and Scottdale fire companies also responded to the scene.