Clean-Up Underway After Scranton High-Rise Fire
By: Eric Deabill
Updated: January 21, 2013
Scranton, Lackawanna County - It could be several more days or even a week before all of the people displaced in a high-rise fire allowed back into their homes.
The blaze broke out Sunday morning in an eighth floor room at the United House Apartments Building on Pine Street in Scranton.
Clean-up efforts were well underway on Monday afternoon.
Because of smoke and water damage, more than 30 people have temporarily been told to stay away from their apartments. Managers are waiting to be able to restore power to part of the building. Officials are hoping to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible.
People who live in the building reacted to the fire that forced them from their building.
"I woke up in my recliner to the alarm and I thought it was a false alarm because since we've been here six years, we've had probably six false alarms," Richard Philbin said.
Richard Philbin lives on the same floor where the fire started. He says you can still smell smoke and see some of the damage left behind.
"There's a lot of damage. There's water damage, the sprinklers went off they're telling me, that the sprinklers went off plus they (firefighters) were using the hoses," Philbin said.
Workers with Damage Control were on scene Monday but some of the affected residents told Eyewitness News off-camera Monday they said it could be a week until they get back into their rooms.
James London also lives on the 8th floor of the high-rise and says when the alarms sounded a lot of people didn't leave.
"A week or two before we had the same thing and what it was, is somebody burnt some toast and the fire department came out and we came down and after I heard that one, I said, I'm going to wait a few minutes to see what happens," London said.
Russ Abbott's apartment on the sixth floor of the building was not damaged but he admits he waited 15 minutes to leave his apartment after first hearing the alarms. He says he wasn't alone.
"Maybe ten people came down at first and then a lot of people waited and waited and waited but I guess when they seen all the fire trucks and emergency vehicles then they started to leave the building," Abbott said.
No one was seriously hurt in the high-rise fire.
The manager declined an on-camera interview request, saying she was "too busy" Monday afternoon.
The fire has been ruled accidental in nature.
