Firefighter shortage evident at Distant house fire

DISTANT – In a tale that is becoming ever more common in this area, firefighters struggled to find enough volunteers Tuesday morning to battle a house fire along Route 28/66 in Distant.

What once may have been handled solely by the Redbank Valley’s three volunteer fire companies, took the efforts of nearly a dozen fire departments that responded to the blaze at the home of Jamie Hale in Mahoning Township.

“It was the perfect storm,” Distant firefighter Brody Toy said, noting that when crews got the call of smoke coming from a home in Distant at 8:09 a.m. on Aug. 1, he knew it was going to be difficult to find enough volunteer firefighters to respond at that time of day.

“A lot of our regulars are already at work by that time,” he said, noting that “manpower” was the biggest challenge in Tuesday’s fire. “It’s always a struggle during the day.”

Toy said that no one was at home when the fire was reported, but that Hale, the owner, arrived shortly at the scene.

“The fire was all contained to the upstairs,” Toy said, noting that as of Tuesday evening, no cause was known for what started the fire.

Crews worked to cut through the steel roof on the structure. Once a hole in the roof was made, the ladder truck from Kittanning No. 6 was able to pour water through the opening.

But while firefighters concentrated their efforts on the second floor of the home, the damage wasn’t limited to that floor.

“The lower floors sustained water damage,” Toy said, adding that he did not know if Hale’s insurance company would rule the structure a total loss or not.

By the time the fire was controlled and crews cleared the scene a little after noon, fire trucks and other vehicles lined Route 28/66, as well as Putneyville Road and the parking lot of Sweet Delights, which is right across the street from the Hale home.

In order to have enough people to battle the fire, crews from four counties were called to the scene, including: Distant, New Bethlehem, Hawthorn, Pine Township/Templeton, Dayton, Summerville, Rimersburg, Ringgold, Kittanning No. 6, Kittanning No. 4, Kittanning No. 1 and Limestone. They were aided by Clarion Hospital EMS and a rehab unit from Bruin in Butler County.

Toy said that while many departments were able to send trucks, many arrived with only a skeleton crew of typically one to four people.

“Every company was like that,” he said.

Fortunately, he said, no one was injured during the large group effort.

Busy Route 28/66 was closed in both directions for several hours, with traffic being restored around noon.

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