MCKEESPORT, Pa. -- A 4-year-old playing with sparklers at an apartment building started a large blaze that McKeesport firefighters called "mad chaos" and required a dramatic rescue effort, Fire Chief Kevin Lust said.
Officially, the cause of the fast-moving fire is still under investigation by the Allegheny County Fire Marshal. But firefighters said a building resident told investigators that her son lit a sparkler and then dropped it on a bed.
The fire ignited at about 6 a.m. Friday at the Hi View Gardens building at Sixth Avenue and Coursin Street, about three blocks away from Lysle Boulevard. The building was engulfed in flames for as long as a half-hour.
"We got out of there in the nick of time," said one man who was trapped in the building. "The floor was dropping right behind us, and the windows was cracking. It was crazy."
WTAE Channel 4's Ari Hait reported from the scene that firefighters carried hoses over their backs up a steep hill to get to the building from four fire trucks on the street below.
"We did sit there and get the ladder up to the third floor so we can sit there and get them out, because if they're going to continue down where the first floor is already filled with smoke, they wouldn't have made it," McKeesport Fire Chief Kevin Lust said.
Hait reported a man handed a child from inside the building to a firefighter on the ladder. The firefighter then carried the child down the ladder, followed by others who climbed down themselves.
"It was frantic," resident Lindsey Jackson said. "Everybody was a little bit panicky. We just started handing the kids over to the firemen and then, as each person went down, they took a kid."
Sky 4 video showed a firefighter carrying a small child from the building, who was followed by two other children and others.
"I just wanted to make sure we got the little babies out of there first, and next get the adults," one man said. "Let the women go, then the men."
The exclusive video showed firefighters going from window to window, breaking glass to check for people inside.
"We actually did a ladder rescue on seven that were taken to the hospital," Lust said. "Twelve were evacuated in the rear of the building."
Thick, heavy black smoke was seen emanating high into the sky from the building. At about 6:35 a.m., flames burst from a window and a portion of the building's roof collapsed.
No inuries were reported, but 27 apartments were damaged and 50 tenants have been displaced, WTAE Channel 4's Sheldon Ingram reported.
Lust said the apartment building is known for having false fire calls as often as once a week, where somebody pulls the fire alarm as a prank.
He believes many of the residents are used to this and they ignore the alarm, which is what he thinks happened on Friday morning, and he said that made it tougher to get everybody out safely.
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Exclusive Sky 4 Video Of The Rescue
