A noon time fire in Williamsport, Pennsylvania yesterday left a 41-year-old man dead. The body of Kenneth Segraves was found in the kitchen at the back of the home at 626 Grace Street about three hours after the fire was discovered. Here are excerpts from an article by Philip A. Holmes at SunGazette.com:
Among those outside the home was Segraves’ 37-year-old brother, Keith, a five-year employee with the city’s streets department.
“They gave the house number (over the radio). That’s how I knew to come down,” Segraves told a Sun-Gazette reporter as thick smoke spewed several hundred feet into the air from his brother’s home.
City Fire Chief C. Dean Heinbach said the fire easily was spotted by firefighters as they pulled out of headquarters on nearby Walnut Street.
Firefighters donned self-contained breathing apparatuses and carried hoses through the front door in a futile attempt to get an upper hand on the fire.
“The basement, all the way to the first and second floors, was involved in fire,” Heinbach said.
Within 20 minutes, all firefighters were ordered out by the inferno because it was getting too dangerous.
“The second-floor stairway gave out, and then the second floor started to cave in. Eventually, some of the roof caved in,” Heinbach said.
