Fire forces evacuation of high-rise apartment building

POTTSTOWN » An apartment fire in the Robert P. Smith Towers was quickly extinguished Jan. 21, but forced the evacuation of some residents.

The blaze destroyed part of a room and caused the evacuation of the residents from the second floor of the nine-story apartment complex at High and Washington streets.

Fire officials say they found a clothes dresser fully involved in flames and worked with crews on an outside ground ladder and an inside crew with hose lines to quickly knock down the fire before it spread.

Residents heads could be seen hanging out of the seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the building looking for help because of the smoke condition in the building.

Pottstown fire Chief Michael Lessar Jr. told WFMZ 69 News that the fire broke out in a clothes dresser in a second-floor apartment. Firefighters contained the fire to just the area of the dresser, and the fire was out within 15 minutes, Lessar told the station.

Firefighters were able to check the upper floors and finding no signs of fire, they instructed residents on the 3rd through 9th floors, many of them elderly, to “shelter in place.”

No injuries were reported among residents or firefighters.

With the exception of the room where the fire was found, residents were able to eventually return to their rooms.

Pottstown firefighters were assisted by units from Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick fire companies.

Fire officials on the scene said the Robert P. Smith Towers has 80 units mostly for the elderly and disabled residents and is run by the Montgomery County Housing Authority.

TOM KELLY III — FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Residents wait outside during a fire in the Robert P. Smith Towers on High and Washington streets in Pottstown Jan. 21.

TOM KELLY III — FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Curtains blow as an elderly resident peers out her 8th floor window as a fire burns below her apartment in the Robert P. Smith Towers on High and Washington streets in Pottstown Jan. 21

TOM KELLY III — FOR DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA A fire in the Robert P. Smith Towers destroyed part of a room and caused the evacuation of the residents from the second floor of the complex.