PENN HILLS, Pa. — A fire inside Penn Arbor Apartments triggered an evacuation after the sprinkler system was initiated and then broke.
Penn Hill EMS Director Diane Fitzhenry says the decision was made to evacuate residents and call PRT buses for assistance.
“With all the flooding at the fact that the sprinkler system is not functioning at this point, and the fact that the people in this building are elderly, a lot of them are non-ambulatory, it was in their best interest, we felt, to evacuate the building and move them to a safe location,” said Fitzhenry.
Residents were taken to a nearby senior citizen facility for shelter.
Fitzhenry says the fire started inside a 9th-floor kitchen.
One man living inside the building says he ran to the other floors to make sure everyone was out safe.
“I went to every floor to see if everyone was ok. And let them know, some of them didn’t hear the alarm,” he said. “It was something that needed to be done. Some people say, ‘that’s a big deal.’ No it ain’t a big deal, that was something that needed to be done.”
It’s unclear when residents can return home; it depends on how quickly the apartment complex can make repairs to the sprinkler system.
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