YMCA Fire

Slide Show / Refer this Story / Youth Convicted

Sometime after 04:00, a resident at the Y. M. C. A., 635 Washington Street, told the on duty security officer that she smelled something burning. After checking the area in question, nothing could be found. Again, the resident came back and repeated her claim. This time, the security guard detected the smoke odor and decided to call the fire department. The security guard then dialed 9-1-1 to report the fire. During this time, the City of Reading, and surrounding Berks County, did not have 9-1-1, and the call instead, went to the operators at Bell Telephone. The operator then switched the call over to the Philadelphia Fire Department, and security told the Philadelphia fire dispatcher that there was something burning inside the Y. M. C. A. on Washington Street. After getting the information, an engine and a ladder (more commonly referred to as a one and one) was sent to the Y. M. C. A. on Washington Street in Philadelphia. After several minutes of waiting, no firefighter arrived. The security guard dialed 9-1-1 to find out what the delay was. By this time, the excited guard had found the fire. His call was, again, transferred to the Philadelphia Fire Department. The dispatcher asked where this Y. M. C. A. was located, and the guard replied, "Reed and Washington Streets!" The Philadelphia fire dispatcher told the guard that Reed and Washington Streets do not intersect. Frustrated, the guard hung up the phone.

At about the same time, a Reading Police Officer who was at the emergency room of Community General Hospital, located at Reed and Walnut Streets, looked south on Reed and discovered heavy fire shooting from the windows of the Y. He quickly called the police dispatcher and reporting the fire. The police dispatcher, in turn, called Wells Fargo. Finally, Box 1726, the Y. M. C. A., was transmitted at 04:45. Car 4, Chief Bansner, along with the first alarm assignment, responded within seconds. One of the first trucks to arrive was Snorkel 1. A career firefighter on that piece reported to the Wells Fargo fire dispatcher he had a working fire on the Reed street side of the building. Car 5, Chief Kellenberger, was Bansner's back up chief that night. Hearing the call, and the report of a working fire, he responded to the Y. M. C. A. from his home. Once Kellenberger arrived on the scene, he took command of an interior crew of men, who were performing a search and rescue operation for those tenants still inside.

Donald Jacobs, a volunteer with the Reading Fire Department for close to five years, also responded to the first alarm. Arriving at the scene, he donned a self-contained breathing apparatus (scba,) and went inside. He apparently met a 22 year old tenant, Todd A. Montag, on a stairway on the east side of the building, near Washington street. As Jacobs reached the foot of the stairway, a flash over engulfed a 170 foot hallway, instantly killing Jacobs and Montag. At the same time, Paul N. Hofmann, a 42 year old career firefighter, and Terry W. Royce, a 24 year old volunteer, were at the second floor landing when the flash over took place. They were able to get out of harms way by exiting through a fire escape door, but not before both men were severely burned. Royce suffered burns to his hands, face, arms, neck and also incurred smoke inhalation. The heat of the flash over was so intense that it fused Royce's metal watch band to his wrist, and Hofmann's plastic helmet melted to the side of his face. Hofmann sustained second and third degree burns to his face, ears and hands. A second alarm was sounded at 04:47.

Car 1, Fire Chief Charles W. Schaeffer, Jr., responded to the second alarm. Not long after arriving on the scene, Chief Schaeffer was informed that volunteer firefighter Donald Jacobs was missing. About five minutes after the search for the missing fire-fighter began, Car 7, Second Deputy Chief Michael J. Moyer, found the lifeless bodies of Jacobs, and the man Jacob's attempted to save, Todd A. Montag. Nothing was left of the leather helmet Jacobs wore into the blaze, except the metal frame. Along with Jacobs and Montag, two other bodies were also found inside the building. They were Warren Eisenbise, 65, and Clarence E. Delp, 61. Berks County Coroner Michael Feeney stated that the bodies of all four victims contained unusually low levels of carbon monoxide for a burn victim. This indicated that their deaths were caused by the instantaneous burning of the lungs. The fire was reported out at 06:33. Five other minor injuries to firefighters were reported.

According to the 1985 National Fire Protection Association's Annual National Fire Experience Survey, there were 6,185 civilian deaths and 128 firefighter deaths during this year.

Thanks to Tony Miccicke for this story.

Youth Convicted of starting YMCA fire.

Soon after the fire Police began questioning suspects known to investigators through other incidents. One of the most promising of those was a woman who had actually reported the fire. None of the leads panned out, however, and the case lay open for several months.

In late May of 1985 a series of fires led investigators to a new suspect. According to then 1st Deputy Chief Rehr, "We had a series of arson fires the following Memorial Day weekend (six fires in one night; starting on Culvert St. and progressing north to around 11th & Greenwich, including a major fire at the Tasty-Maid Bakery in the 100 block S. 9th St.) During the fires, RPD Juvenile Investigator Frank Anderson encountered Tracy Pietrovito on the street and stopped him and questioned him and then let him go.

Later after discussing the encounter with Inspector Terry Wagner, they decided to pull him in. He admitted the Memorial Day weekend fires, and eventually one thing led to another and he admitted the YMCA fires. In his confession, he gave information that only the arsonist would have known. It seems he would go on an arson spree when he had trouble at home. The night of the “Y” fire, his stepfather had thrown him out of the house, and he found the unlocked door to the basement of the “Y”, and the rest is history. I remember the day that he confessed. Terry Wagner stuck his head in our office and said “he went for it !”

Pietrovito, 17 at the time, was charged as an adult on June 5, 1985 and committed to the Youth Detention Center in Berks County to await trial. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of criminal homicide, arson and related offenses. He was eventually convicted of the charges and imprisoned. He is still serving out the sentence in a Pennsylvania prison and maintains his innocence.