PITTSBURGH — Drone 11’s view from above shows what Pittsburgh firefighters were up against on the ground Tuesday at an apartment building on Forward Avenue.
Fire shot from the ceiling and the entire roof eventually became fully involved.
>>Click here for more photos from the scene<<
Firefighters faced big flames, thick smoke and a 40-unit apartment to search.
Hours later, Pittsburgh firefighters continued to douse the charred building with water to control hot spots.
The four-alarm fire destroyed a building that’s been part of the neighborhood since 1920.
County records show the 40-unit building has been owned by the same family since at least 1988.
For neighbors in Squirrel Hill, the scene is reminiscent of another on the corner of the same block at Forward and Murray avenues.
There, a fire burned a large vacant building in May 2015.
“This was a whole corner that was gonna be redeveloped,” said then Councilman Corey O’Connor after that fire. “You don’t know if it was, you know, just vandals in the neighborhood going in. They did have a couple of squatters in there as well.”
The key difference, though, is that today’s fire happened at a building where dozens of people were living.
The Red Cross is opening an emergency shelter for people affected at the Greenfield Rec Center.
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