Charleroi building in danger of collapse after weekend fire
Charleroi Borough officials are considering whether they will have to demolish the remnants of an apartment building after fire destroyed the structure over the weekend, leaving it on the verge of collapsing.
The fire began inside the two-story building at 933 McKean Ave. about 10 p.m. Sunday and quickly spread through the attic, prompting the roof to collapse onto the second-floor apartments, Charleroi fire Chief Robert Whiten Jr. said.
The property owners and residents, Charles and Margaret Diaz, were able to escape uninjured, although they did not have insurance on the property and Whiten did not know if they have another place to stay. The American Red Cross posted on social media that it was assisting the couple.
Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to a home behind the building, although a firefighter injured her knee while battling the blaze, Whiten said.
“The guys did a good job keeping it from extending it over to that house,” Whiten said.
Whiten said he’s concerned that the structure is unstable and could collapse.
“That roof is pushing on the outside walls,” he said. “You don’t know. It could come down at any time. Something needs to be done. It needs to be taken down sooner rather later.”
Borough Manager Joe Manning visited the site Tuesday morning with the municipality’s code enforcement officer to make an initial inspection and post the building as an unsafe structure.
“It’s not a good situation,” Manning said.
Manning, a retired Washington city firefighter, said he plans to speak to Whiten to see if the borough should get an emergency condemnation order to demolish the building immediately.
“Just to be safe, we don’t want any unsafe structures where they’re endangering other structures or just a hazard to the public in general,” Manning said. “We’re looking to get that razed as soon as possible.”
Charleroi firefighters were at the scene battling the blaze for about four hours, and were assisted by 10 fire departments.
It was the second of two residential fires in Washington County over the weekend. The Red Cross posted on social media that it was helping four adults and a child who were displaced by a house fire Saturday morning in the 40 block of Knight Lane in South Franklin Township. No additional information on that fire was available.