York fire chief: Saturday blaze undetermined, but under investigation

York fire and police officials have launched an investigation to determine what caused a Saturday afternoon blaze that displaced 10 adults, two children and a dog from four row homes.

On Sunday morning, a lone York City Fire/Rescue Services fire truck arrived at the scene in the 600 block of East Philadelphia Street. Through broken-out windows, water still dripped from a first-floor ceiling in one home, and the acrid stench of charred clothing, furniture and wood hung in the air.

York City Fire Chief Chad Deardorff was there as well, focusing his attention on a first-floor porch area to the rear of 634 E. Philadelphia St., where he said the fire started.  

"We're going to leave it undetermined at this time," he said of the cause. "Myself and PD (York City Police Department) will continue with the investigation."

The fire caused a total of $510,000 in damage to the homes and contents. The American Red Cross worked with the displaced residents to provide them with emergency food, shelter and clothing, he said.

"For what we had, we were very fortunate that no residents or firefighters were injured," Deardorff said.

The chief said in addition to the investigation into the fire's cause, a city building code official will examine the structural stability of the buildings.

Horizontal fire and hoarding

The fire began around 1:50 p.m. Saturday, with about 75 firefighters from five departments working to extinguish the fire, which spread to four row homes from 628 to 636 E. Philadelphia St.

"On arrival, we had heavy fire ... it went horizontal and vertical on all four of the homes," Deardorff said. "The roof decking was multi-layered so we had issues getting to some of the underlying roof decking areas."

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In addition, 634 E. Philadelphia St. posed a different problem — hoarding, he said.

"There was numerous books ... probably thousands of books inside," he said. "It just posed a problem with getting inside to fight the fire."

At one point in the fight, facing a potential roof collapse, firefighters went to a defensive mode, meaning they only fought the fire from the exterior on two of the houses, Deardorff said.

Residents escape

Two residents, one in 630, the other in 636 E. Philadelphia St., were in their homes at the time of the fire, but escaped before firefighters arrived, the chief said Sunday.

City of York Mayor Michael Helfrich was on scene speaking with residents. "Glad everyone is safe," he said.

Firefighters did rescue a dog, Princess, who belongs to Marilyn Rodriguez, one of the residents who was displaced by the fire. On Saturday, Rodriguez said she was not home at the time the fire broke out, but Princess was.

"My sister was the one who called me," said Rodriquez, who lives at 628 E. Philadelphia St. "It was scary."

Jennifer Melendez, 31, who lives in one of the two apartments in the corner building at 636 E. Philadelphia Street, said Saturday her grandmother, who was outside at the time the fire started, noticed smoke and alerted authorities.

Mylea Thompson, 53, who has lived at 636 E. Philadelphia St. since 2012, said Monday she was out of her home when she received two phone calls that it was on fire.

Arriving at the scene, she encountered cordoned-off streets, numerous fire trucks and spotted firefighters "dumping water into where my bedroom was."

She was led to a church across the street, where volunteers from the American Red Cross assisted her with the process of regaining important papers and medications she had lost in the fire.

"It was extremely helpful; you have no idea what to do," she said. "You can't even think."

Since the fire, Thompson has been unable to find her house cat, Tinkerbell, despite returning to the fire scene to call for her.

Still, she says she is thankful for all of the help extended to her by friends.

"I'm very grateful to all the people on Facebook who have shared their love and prayers," she said. "It's wonderfully overwhelming."

Firefighter response

Helping York City firefighters were others from York Area United Fire and Rescue, West York, West Manchester and the borough of Manchester.

Firefighters from Nashville and Dover Township were on stand-by in the city, in case there were any additional fire or rescue calls.

"We had a mass re-call of off-duty firefighters from the city, some to cover stations, some to come to the scene," Deardorff added.

Ted Czech is a multi-platform crime/emergency journalist with The York Daily Record.  He can be reached at tczech@ydr.com, at 717-771-2033 or on Twitter at @TedCzechYDR