A still alarm was dispatched
at 22:37, for a reported smoke condition in the area of
McDonalds, 500 Penn street, Engine 3 and Ladder 1 responded.
Arriving on location, the men from those two companies
found wisps of smoke on the second floor of the restaurant,
but no immediate indication of where it was coming from.
Not long after the still alarm, Box 312, 5th and Penn streets,
was asked for.
Car 2, First Deputy Chief Merle
A. Gerlach, led a crew of men with an inch and a half hose
line, throughout the second floor in search of the blaze.
On the outside, firefighters could see that
the fire was getting progressively worse and attempted
to call Gerlach on the radio. The several repeated attempts
to reach the first deputy failed.
Inside, First Deputy Chief Gerlach opened one of several
doors on the second floor. They were immediately greeted
with intense heat and smoke.
Gerlach
then evacuated the second floor of the restaurant.
Not long after, a flash over occurred. The flash over
had left nothing but the nozzle and the metal coupling
of the inch and a half hose line that was brought upstairs.
The firefighters working on the roof were also evacuated.
In the meantime, Second Deputy Chiefs Charles W. Schaeffer,
Jr, and William H. Rehr, III, along with Fire Chief
Russell P. Mogel and firefighter Ronald Heller,
went to the roof in another attempt to find the
fire. Heller told Mogel that the roof was getting spongy
and Mogel then ordered everyone off the roof. Just
as Mogel climbed onto the ladder to vacate the
roof, a ten or more ton air-conditioning unit fell
threw the second floor roof to the basement. Fortunately,
Gerlach's evacuation saved his crew from injury
or death. The collapse sent a shower of sparks into
the air and flames lit up the sky.
A second alarm
was then requested, and subsequently a third, or general
alarm was struck bringing nearly all the City apparatus
and several County Units to the fire. Crews
battled the blaze on the roof, as well as on the second
floor.
Two and a half inch handlines were advanced into the building
only to be backed out moments later. Master streams were
then used to blacken down the flames and the crews would
advance again. Plaster wire mesh in the walls and ceilings
hampered the efforts of the firefighters in attempting
to find and douse the fire. After almost six hours, the
fire was finally placed under control at 05:24.
Well over 100 firefighters were
on the scene at one point during the incident and several
injuries were reported. One of those injured was Samuel
Ninfo, 22, from the Keystone Company. He was carried
from the building unconscious and not breathing and was
revived on the scene but refused to go to the hospital.
He was later pulled from the building a second time,
again revived and was this time ordered to be transported.
The fire
apparently had started in the duct work, in the rear
of the building. It then spread in all directions within
the confines of a false ceiling.
Several businesses besides the McDonalds Restaurant
were damaged in the incident. Included in the destruction
were the Beneficial Consumer Discount Company, the
Gotham Factory Outlet, Famous Maid, the Gould Dental
Laboratory, and the Credit Bureau of Reading and
Berks. It was estimated that over $1,000,000 worth
of damage was incurred.
Both
Robert S. Bialek, the city's building inspector,
and City Councilman Charles R. Hawman, agreed after
visiting the ruins, that the building was to be razed.
The structure was all that was left of the Mansion
House Hotel. Thanks to T. Miccicke for this written
piece of Reading Fire Department history.
