Inferno levels 200-year-old building

A fire destroyed an auto-body shop on the intersection of Route 737 and Kutz Mill Road on Friday, shutting portions of the road down for eightand- a-half hours. The cause of the fire, which began at 4:23 p.m., is still undetermined as of press time.

Kutztown and 11 other fire companies were on the scene after neighbors and passers-by reported flames emanating from the two-story, 200- year-old building.

One Kutztown firefighter went to the hospital after reporting shortness of breath and chest pains. These symptoms are usually associated with the anxiety and stress of firefighting. He was released in good health after overnight observations in the hospital.

Kutztown Fire Company Chief Troy Arndt considered the conflagration to be a multiple-alarm fire. “It was above three-alarm fire, but we only have indicators that go up to three-alarm,” he said.

An elevated alarm number indicates increased commitment of resources because the fire has become bigger or the fire is predicted to burn long enough that firefighters on scene will need to be replaced because of exhaustion.

It took roughly 75 firefighters onscene approximately two hours to get the fire under control, and six hours of cleanup and debris clearing. Crews ran into some troubles because of the heavy snowfall, freezing water and small roadway.

Arndt said he was “on the scene within five minutes of the first alarm and the first truck arrived within eight or nine minutes of the alarm.”

The Kutztown Patriot reported the smoke was visible from the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 8:17 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.