HAZLETON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — An investigation is underway into a huge fire that destroyed two homes and damaged a third in Luzerne County.
28/22 News spoke to a man who says he’s lucky to be alive after jumping out of a window, escaping the blaze.
What was left of an apartment building on South Wyoming and East Walnut Street in Hazleton came toppling down early Wednesday after flames ripped through it, leaving destruction overnight.
Emergency crews battled the fire and hotspots for more than ten hours, and the blaze spread to two nearby homes.
"The fire had a tremendous head start on us. We probably arrived on scene within two minutes of dispatch, and the fire was already, the second and third floors, which were already fully involved and showing out of all sides of the structure, so it definitely had a tremendous head start on us," stated Chief Donald Leshko, City of Hazleton Fire Department.
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Chief Leshko says nine people in surrounding homes are now displaced, but as for the building where the fire originated, the owner told him it was vacant. However, three people were inside and injured, one of them being Steve.
"I was sleeping in the hallway, barricaded by two doors, by twelve something, I was surrounded and engulfed in flames," said Steve.
He tells me he was staying overnight with plans to go across the street to the Heartwood Center at the Willow Foundation, a day shelter and drop-in center for those experiencing homelessness.
"All I could do was just break a window and jump out the window, and try to get the other. There were some homeless people over there, and I helped them out of the building," explained Steve.
The three of them were then taken to the hospital.
"I banged my arm really, really hard. My chest, from the fall. Thank god i made it out of here, that’s all I’m happy about," Steve expressed.
Steve tells me he doesn't know how the fire started.
"Somebody caused that fire. The only reason I say that is because there’s no electricity in that building."
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation with Hazleton Fire and a state police fire marshal.
The nine people displaced are being assisted by the American Red Cross. Fire officials say the two properties were destroyed, will need to be entirely demolished.
