Strangers help save man from Springdale house fire
A home tucked deep in the woods of Springdale Township caught on fire on Monday morning, drawing 10 fire crews to the scene.
Neighbors were the first to rush in before firefighters arrived, helping save the man who lives in the home. One of those neighbors was Della Mayfield, who saw the smoke and ran to help.
"I was scared to death if he was still in the house," Mayfield said.
She told KDKA she saw the elderly man outside on the porch, and with the home already in flames, she did everything she could to get him to safety.
"He was out on his porch and the house was already on fire. So, I dragged him away from the fire and tried to get him up the driveway, but it was just too bad," said Mayfield.
That's when two young men who were strangers to the neighborhood, but were in town for a Memorial Day party, jumped in to help.
"We sprinted down and picked him up and got him up the hill until they could get someone to get him out," said Nathan Sarra.
"It was bad. We kept thinking it was going to blow up because we were hearing popping and stuff," said Sean Carmichael.
The two say they acted fast, not knowing if the man was still inside the burning house.
"At first, we thought he was inside the house," said Sarra. "So, we went to the house, and it was just engulfed in flames and smoke. He was lying on his side. We told him we're going to get you out of here."
When fire crews arrived, they were relieved to learn the man was not in the home, but they still had to navigate difficult terrain to fight the fire.
"This property offers some challenges with the driveway," said Allegheny Valley Fire Department Deputy Chief Tyler Kelly. "It's about 150 to 200 feet down a gravel road to the residence. A lot of our members were walking, a lot of hose was pulled."
Deputy Chief Kelly said firefighters were able to knock down the flames in about 15 minutes. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Springdale Volunteer Fire Department response questions
Although 10 fire crews responded to Monday's fire, the Springdale Borough Volunteer Fire Department was not one of them.
Eleven of the station's firefighters were attending a Memorial Day service blocks away when the flames broke out, but they were not called to the scene.
"Our engine was literaly two blocks, three blocks away from the incident at that current time," Springdale Volunteer Fire Department Commander Daniel Copeland said. "We were not dispatched to that incident.
The house fire was in Springdale Township, and Springdale Borough does not cover that area. Allegheny Valley fire is in charge of run cards, which determine who responds to a fire. Springdale VFD was not on the run card and did not receive a call.
"We can't answer that question as to why we are not on that particular run card," Copeland said. "Our station is 1.2 miles from that particular scene. Why we are not on that run card, I can't answer that question."
Allegheny Valley Deputy Fire Chief Tyler Kelly said Springdale is on the run card, but only when a fire rises to a second alarm. Kelly said the fire on Monday did not reach a second alarm.
Copeland also said Allegheny County rolled out some new dispatch protocols last month.
"You do not call the dispatchers over the air and say 'hey, we have a crew in station,'" Copeland said.
"Why's that?" KDKA's Jennifer Borrassoa asked.
"It ties up a lot of radio traffic," Copeland said.
Copeland says a lieutenant broke protocol and called dispatch. He added that an Oakmont fire engine responded as well.
"He advised Oakmont that there was a good, working fire in the area and said that we were at the Springdale Cemetery," Copeland said.
Kelly said that the information never got to him. He said he could have and probably would have used the Springdale Borough fire crew if he knew they were that close to the scene.
An Allegheny County spokesperson says this fire call was investigated to see if anything went wrong. She said Allegheny Valley fire did everything correctly.