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Box 135 was dispatched at 21:47 tonight for a reported fire at Borelli's Hotel, 49 So 3rd at Franklin Street. Engines 3, 5, 1, 13 safety, Ladder 1, Tower 1, Rescue 1 and Cars 3 and 6 responded to the call. Engine 3, Ladder 1 and Car 3 all arrived within a few moments from the station at North 3rd and Court Streets a block and a half away. There was light smoke coming from the windows on the 3rd Street side and Car 3 reported visible flame from the 2nd floor window of the two story building. An 1 3/4 handline was pulled off the Engine and a crew advanced it to the side door.
The owner of the establishment met firefighters at the entrance and reported that he had put the fire out. The handline was left at the entrance and a pressurized water extinguisher was taken up to a boarders room on the 2nd floor. In the room was a scorched and smoldering mattress on top of two other mattresses. Firefighters emptied the PW on the smoldering mattress and took out the windows to remove the bedding to the outside so firefighters on the ground could soak it down.
The occupant of the room returned from down the hall, barefoot and covered in dust from the extinguisher the bar owner used on the fire. He admitted he was smoking in bed, which had already been evident from the piles of smoking material dropping out of two large ashtrays next to the place where the mattresses lay on the floor. The fire had burnt up the wall and licked at the ceiling before it was extinguished.
The establishment had been the scene of a previous fire on January 7 of 1972. Box 135 was sounded at 22:38. Then a three story building, the upper floors were well involved by the time firefighters arrived. Three men, all residents of the motel, were found dead in their rooms. The establishment was known as Bert and Alfredo's Hotel back then but when the two brothers split the business it became known for their last name, Borelli.
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