SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA – At 1:08 PM, Schuylkill County 9-1-1 dispatched Fire District 49, Station 2 (McAdoo Inc.) to Lofty Road in Kline Township for a reported building on fire. Carbon Engine 2911 (Trescow) and Luzerne Medic 11 (APTS) were also on the initial alarm.
First responding crews were advised of multiple reports of an old building on fire on Lofty Road, it was unsure where exactly the building was located. Police found the fire to be at the old American Cable Recyclers building at 599 Lofty Road in Delano Township.
The first alarm was upgraded to a commercial fire and dispatched Delano Twp., Ryan Twp., Rush Twp. (Hometown and Quakake), Mahanoy City (Citizens and West End) and Ryan Township EMS to the scene.
Fire crews found heavy smoke showing from a large abandoned commercial structure. Delano Engine 06-10 arrived on scene and took the B/C corner of the building. McAdoo Engine 49-15 and Quint 49-22 positioned behind Delano. 49-15 began an attack with the deck gun while 49-22 set up an elevated master stream.
Mahanoy City Engine 454 began to establish a dump site for tankers at the A/B corner since there was no water supply in the rural setting of the building. Ryan Twp. Engine 26-10 took the A/D corner and stretched attack lines. Their tanker set up a dump site also at the A/D corner.
A tanker task force was requested into the scene to supplement the first alarm. The task force went multiple alarms and brought in close to twenty tankers from Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne Counties.
Mahanoy City Tower 456 was set up on the A side of the building and began flowing water from the platform. The tower was supplied by Ryan Twp. 26-30. 26-30 had three ponds set up for drafting while Engine 454 was drafting from five ponds on the other side of the building.
With the help of multiple hand lines and the two master streams, the bulk of the fire was knocked down within two hours. Although the bulk of the fire was contained, firefighters faced an enormous amount of overhaul due to the amount of material left in the building once the company moved to a new facility. The tanker shuttle continued to operate until almost 8:00 PM when the operation finally began to wrap up.
Personnel on scene were cooled down and provided refreshments at the scene with the help of Ryan Twp. EMS and APTS Medic 11.
