Series of fires keep Beaver County firefighters hopping

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — Aliquippa firefighters responded to four different fire scenes in subzero temperatures early Wednesday morning, including a home where two people were injured escaping the blaze.

Fire Chief Dave Foringer said his department was assisting at a fire on Pearl Street in Hopewell Township when a call came in for a house fire on Wykes Street in Aliquippa.

This article was written by Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE.

By the time firefighters arrived, the house was fully involved. Two people in the home fled by leaping off the roof of the back porch. They were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, he said, and expected to fully recover. The family dog, a Rottweiler named Master, died in the fire, neighbors said.

Foringer said that fire is believed to have started in the kitchen, and the house is a total loss.

While crews attacked that fire, another report came in of a house fire nearby in the 2100 block of Ritchie Street, Foringer said.

Some firefighters diverted to that call even though a fire engine at the Wyckes Street scene was disabled by the frigid weather, he said.

The single-story ranch home on Ritchie is destroyed as well, Foringer said.

A county emergency management official at that scene said fire destroyed a barn on Hall Road in Brighton Township and killed an unknown number of livestock.

Two school buses sat running on Ritchie to provide warming centers for firefighters covered in ice. A neighbor also turned his garage into a warming center with hot beverages for the emergency workers.

WPXI