Two bodies recovered from rubble of East Germantown twin home destroyed in fire
Two large fires broke out in different parts of the city in less than eight hours. The second one involved a church in Kensington.
The bodies of two people were recovered from the rubble of a twin home that was destroyed in a fire, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fire Department said Friday night.
Firefighters responded to a report of a house fire on the 500 block of Brinton Street just after 5 p.m. Thursday and found heavy flames at a three-story structure, with heavy smoke billowing out, said Rachel Cunningham, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fire Department.
Fire officials determined the building was unsafe and in danger of collapsing, and all responding firefighters were told to evacuate shortly before part of the back of the house collapsed and the flames spread to an adjacent building, Cunningham said.
After the fire reached two alarms, more than 110 Philadelphia firefighters responded to the scene and the fire was placed under control more than three hours after the initial response, at 8:12 p.m.
One firefighter was injured and was taken to a local hospital in stable condition and later released, Cunningham said.
On Friday night, Cunningham confirmed that two bodies had been recovered from the fire scene.
Their identities were not immediately made public. Earlier on Friday, Police Deputy Commissioner Frank vanore said a man and a woman from one of the buildings were missing.
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the cause of death for the two people while the Fire Marshal’s Office is working to determine the cause of the fire.
In a separate call hours later, firefighters responded to Kensington for a fire at the Radical Church of Philadelphia, formerly the East Allegheny Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, according to a sign at the scene, on the 2000 block of Allegheny Avenue at 12:45 a.m. Friday, Cunningham said. When firefighters arrived, they found a heavy fire that prompted an “all-hands status,” where all available fire companies respond to fight the flames, she said.
In that fire, firefighters also were asked to evacuate due to heavy flames and continued to douse them from outside the building, Cunningham said.
By 1:11 a.m. the fire had reached a third alarm and more than 120 firefighters were battling the blaze, she said. Much of the church had collapsed and firefighters were finally able to put the fire under control at 1:45 a.m., she said.
No injuries were reported and the Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause and origin point of the fire.