Student escapes blaze at home during ‘virtual’ class
UPPER DARBY » A twoalarm fire gutted a rowhome in the 3800 block of Brunswick Avenue in Drexel Hill Monday morning. A student attending virtual school safely evacuated as smoke filled his home.
“I was supposed to go back (to in-person classes) today but they cancelled so I was upstairs in my room doing online classes and all of the sudden I smelled smoke,” said Josh, an Upper Darby High School student who declined to give his full name. “I ran downstairs and saw there was a bunch of smoke coming from the vent in the kitchen. I ran back upstairs got some of my stuff and got out of there.”
Nobody else was home at the time. He said he had his headphones on so didn’t hear any smoke alarms.
“Once I saw the smoke it was more or less tunnel vision to get out,” he said as he sat across the street at his grandparents’ home holding his possessions. “I got my laptop and Nintendo Switch but I didn’t get the laptop power cord.”
In the adjoining home, Tyesha Brown was also upstairs when the blaze broke out about 9:30 a.m.
“My dad was the one who woke me up,” said Brown as she stood across the street watching firefighters battle the blaze. “The smoke was really bad in the dining room area. We went outside and went to the back to try to get away from the chaos but were blocked in by the fire trucks. “
Upper Darby Fire Chief Derrick Sawyer said firefighters were hampered by arcing wires in the rear of the home which prevented them from attacking the blaze. The electrical lines that run above the garages in the rear of the home had caught on fire as a result firefighters were delayed in attacking the blaze in the basement due to the danger of electricity.
“It started out as a two story row house dwelling fire with fire in the rear and extended into the basement,” said Sawyer. “It started traveling up to the second floor. The second alarm was to make sure we had enough resources on scene.
“It was sketchy for a minute but they did a good job of not letting it extend into the exposures,” Sawyer said. “Life safety first, then property conservation. They did a great job of preventing the fire from extending to other homes. We wanted to make sure we got the power shut off. We didn’t anyone one electrocuted. They did a good job containing it until PECO got out and turned off the power off. Then we were able to get in locate and extinguish the fire.”
Firefighters evacuated adjoining homes and had the fire was under control in just under one hour. Neighbors watched as firefighters removed charred belongings from the second-floor bedrooms. Flames had traveled above the ceiling, requiring firefighters to pull apart the ceiling up to the roof.
“All the men did a great job. Neighboring companies did a great job coming in to help us get this fire under control,” Sawyer said.
One firefighter was treated for an injury during the overhaul; the extent of his injury was unknown.