Ambulance Carrying Police Officer Injured In Fire Struck Head-On By Truck
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MCKEES ROCKS (KDKA) – A police officer was injured twice and two people are homeless following a duplex fire in McKees Rocks on Wednesday morning.
The fire started in the 100 block of Greydon Avenue around 9:30 a.m.
Fire investigators have now left the scene, but the duplex is heavily damaged and the people who lived there lost everything.
One of the apartments was empty, that's where the fire started. Two people lived next door.
Victoria Paul watched tearfully as her apartment went up in flames.
"I'm gonna lose everything. They're breaking out the windows. All of my possessions are in there," Paul said.
When the smoke finally cleared, she surveyed the damage and her worst fears had been realized.
"As you can see, all that's gone, the ceiling's gone," Paul said. "Everything here is pretty much destroyed."
Investigators say the fire started in the basement and quickly spread into a vacant apartment. There's no word on a cause, but the fire put one police officer in double jeopardy.
First, she suffered smoke inhalation.
"She was met with overcoming smoke and came back out," Allegheny County Emergency Services Assistant Chief Steve Imbarlina said. "She was subsequently transported by EMS."
On the way to the hospital, a truck collided with the ambulance transporting the officer. She was injured a second time, along with three crew members and the person driving the truck.
All were taken to the hospital in other ambulances.
There were early reports here that the second floor of the vacant duplex collapsed, but now firefighters are saying the floor burned through but did not collapse.