Fire, smoke pour from house in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood

PITTSBURGH — Crews battled a massive fire in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood early Friday morning.

PHOTOS: Fire, smoke pour from house in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood

Our crew could see flames and smoke pouring from a house on N. Franklin Street as far back as Mt. Washington.

“We had the aerial up , we wanted to get another one in the backside but due to the water issue we could only run one at a time,” said Pittsburgh Battalion Chief Josh Kuzma.

Since all the houses run off the same grid, Kuzma says water pressure became an issue.

The aerial ladder managed to help contain it from spreading to nearby brush and buildings.

Crews need to secure what’s now an unstable burned out brick façade, because of the house collapsed later in the morning.

Will Tompkins lives in the neighborhood.

“The blessing is that nobody, I don’t think, got hurt. There are no utilities on. The house has been vacant for decades, " said Tompkins

Tompkins noticed police navigating big rigs and commuters around it all.. As fire firefighters kept a watchful eye on hot spots.

“You drive up chateau street and you glance, and you see the 2 houses to the right which have been restored, recently versus this house that’s on fire... Definitely an eyesore.” Said Tompkins

There are still a lot of questions about what caused this. That’s for the fire marshal to figure out.

“How did it catch fire? Was someone in there? Could’ve been a variety of things,” said Tompkins

Right now, they’re working to secure this structure and then determine what the next steps are for this property.

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