JEANNETTE, Pa. — Camera footage from the helmet of a Jeannette firefighter is giving a rarely seen perspective of what happens when responding to a fire.
The video was taken from the viewpoint of a firefighter while battling flames Monday night at a home on Columbia Court.
“To find the base of the fire, it's concerning. It takes time, and with thick black smoke in a small house, it was full of fire, that's for sure,” Jeannette Fire Chief Vance Phillips said.
Smoke can be seen in the video pouring from windows as flames shoot from the back of the home. A door is then kicked open and a firefighter calls out to anyone who might have been inside.
“A neighbor banged on my door. I was upstairs watching TV, and all of a sudden I heard this big bang. I came downstairs. My husband yelled at me that the building was on fire,” Anna Wilson, a neighbor, said.
Wilson lives several houses down in a series of rowhomes, the same building where the fire broke out. She said she was evacuated for about an hour and a half until firefighters could get the flames under control.
“It was smoking and we saw the flames, and they were tossing out debris,” Wilson said.
Phillips described the scene and what was happening at that point in time.
“As you can tell from the surrounding area here in front of us, there was a lot of debris in the structure, so initial set of firemen were actually climbing over to make the conditions safe and put water on the fire,” he said.
In the end, fire crews were able to contain the fire and prevent it from causing damage to neighboring homes. Phillips said a quick response made all the difference.
“We had two firemen straight out of the station respond to the fire within 60 seconds, and quicker you put water on the fire, the safer the rest of the units are adjacent,” Phillips said.