Nobody appeared to be injured in a fire Thursday night that
apparently started in an adjacent building, and spread to an
apartment house at 63 South Ave.
Personnel from both the Bradford City Fire Department and
Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire
at 9 p.m. The fire was “fully involved” when firefighters arrived
on scene.
According to police radio, initial reports said the fire began
in a neighboring building and spread to the back corner of the
apartment house. There was no immediate word on whether the fire
began in the neighboring former church building or at a garage
behind the apartment house.
According to Bradford City Police on the scene, everyone made it
safely out of the building.
A second floor resident of the building, Holly Vanalstine, said
there was smoke going into the house and wondered what the smell
was. When she looked out her kitchen window, she spotted the fire
and evacuated.
The city department experienced a hard time fighting the blaze
since the wood of the building was so old and the fire was going in
between the walls as firefighters were fighting it, according to a
Bradford City Police officer on scene.
Police started clearing out some of the houses in the
neighboring vicinity around 10:30 p.m., but it was not immediately
clear if that was due to the heavy smoke that wafted across the
city or a smell of natural gas that eyewitnesses on scene could
smell.
Police said they saved a miniature Collie on the third floor
that was standing, dazed by the smoke.
The McKean-Potter Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross and
the McKean County SPCA were called to the scene at 10:45 p.m.
According to police radio, the SPCA was called there to care for
three dogs and two cats.
Several residents from the neighboring area could be seen
lingering around South Avenue and on Congress Street; Tibbetts
Avenue connects the two streets.
The Lewis Run Volunteer Fire Department was called in on
stand-by for the Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department.
Firefighters were still standing by at the scene as of late
Thursday night.
Members of the Bradford Special Police helped with crowd control
and directed traffic at the intersections of West Corydon Street
and South Avenue and Tibbetts and Congress.
No further information was available at press time.
The fire was the second one in the span of two weeks on South
Avenue; two vacant homes located at 76 and 78 South Ave., burned to
the ground in the early morning hours of Oct. 22.
Bradford City Fire Chief Bill McCormack said the homes were “too
destroyed” to determine a cause of the fire, but added the
structures “were constantly used by children.” McCormack said it’s
likely a child started a fire inside the building and left when the
blaze took off.
The homes were on the city’s demolition list and were probably
abandoned for 10 years or more.
There were no injuries in that fire.
