Fire Chief Adam Janosko said the lack of manpower is the biggest obstacle to fighting the fire.
The Elizabeth Township Fire Department and several emergency agencies responded to a house fire on Smithfield Street in Elizabeth Township Friday morning.
At around 10:23 a.m., the first alarm was relayed to several callers reporting a fire in the roof of the home at 6747 Smithfield Street, according to a Facebook post from the Elizabeth Township Fire Department.
“One of the members was passing by on his way to the station, noticed a fire coming from the roof and continued to the station to retrieve the fire truck,” said Adam Janosko, chief of the Elizabeth Township Fire Department. “When he returned, the fire had spread a little to the front of the house.
“I don’t know who actually called,” Janosko added. “I think someone drove by, saw the house fire and reported it. It was reported as a roof fire. We don’t know if it was the roof itself or if it was in the house and spread to the roof and that’s how they saw it.”
A second alarm was raised, confirming a fire and “requiring additional manpower to assist the first alarm,” the post said. Water was restored and crews went to work.
“There was a second alarm, mainly because the volunteer fire departments were having problems with daytime staffing, because people were mostly at work or something,” Janosko said. “It wasn’t really the intensity of the fire that they couldn’t control. It was just a lack of manpower. After a couple of hours they had it under control, mainly not so much the fire trucks, but the people. We had enough fire trucks and things like that. We just didn’t have the manpower.”
The home was unoccupied at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported, Janosko said. There were also reports of a dog in the home, but Janosko does not believe one was in the home at the time.
“I would say the front of the house was pretty badly destroyed, and it started to spread to the back, but from the outside it looks like the back is in pretty good shape,” Janosko said. “From the outside it’s deceptive. The whole main floor was basically destroyed, and the basement suffered major heat and water damage.”
Grand Central Pizza in Elizabeth Township distributed pizza to crews at a reduced price while they cleaned equipment and prepared it for their next call, the post said.
“A guy came in and said the pizzas were for his dad and a group of firefighters who were responding to the Smithfield Street fire in Elizabeth Township,” said one of the owners of Grand Central Pizza, John Walton. “I saw a picture of the house and he said they were down there for a couple of hours fighting the fire and then had to clean up.”
“They had to re-roll all the hoses that they had let down, and we just appreciate what these people do in the community and the township and pretty much all over the world,” Walton added. “They’re volunteers. They’re not paid. They do this out of the goodness of their hearts, and we appreciate that.”
Walton added that the pizzeria does not charge uniformed workers who stop by because they “value their work.”
Fire departments from the following communities also assisted: Blaine Hill Buena Vista, City of McKeesport Bureau of Fire, McKeesport Firefighters IAFF Local 10, Lincoln Boro No. 1, Volunteer Firemen’s Association of Liberty Borough, Versailles, Sutersville, Citizens Hose Co. No. 1 Of Glassport, Elizabeth Borough, White Oak, Munhall No. 1, as well as the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services of Western Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Township Police Department and SouthEast Regional EMS.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Allegheny County Fire Marshal and Janosko said they are unsure what the cause or origin of the fire was.
Janosko added that the homeowner actually had insurance on the house and the power was eventually turned off Friday afternoon.
“I would say they did a great job putting it out,” Janosko said. “I think overall they did a good job, even given the manpower issues they had with typical daylight fires. All in all, it went pretty well.”
