Early raw video & fireground audio from deadly PA firehouse fire. Body found in car pushed into Leithsville VFC by dump truck.
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Earlier coverage including video from Newsworking
Photos from Lehigh Valley’s Bravest’s Dan Clerico
Listen to fireground audio from Posterous via Lehigh Valley’s Bravest
The fire was reported around 1 p.m. at the Leithsville Volunteer Fire Company in Lower Saucon Township. The fire went to three alarms, bringing additional manpower and water tankers to the scene.
Firefighters from Northampton, Lehigh, Bucks and Montgomery counties were called in to help get control of the fire.
After the flames were out, firefighters found another vehicle had been involved in the accident.
A person has been found dead inside a vehicle inside the fire house, the Northampton County coroner confirms.
The driver of the truck, hauling asphalt, is believed to have lost control traveling from Flint Hill Road onto Route 412, Barndt said. It was not immediately clear for what company the driver worked.
Neighbors who were outside at the time of the wreck described a chaotic scene when they heard the deafening noise of the truck slamming into the building.
Pennsylvania officials this week announced the official merger of Lower Saucon Township’s Leithsville and Se-Wy-Co volunteer fire companies. Barndt will preside over the combined force. It’s unclear how or if this afternoon’s fire will affect the consolidation, due to go into full effect in June.
Many people in the area said they heard explosions coming from the fire station after the crash. Getz said things started to explode just as he, his 40-year-old brother Paul and friend Robert Hillegass, 20, of Bethlehem, got the driver across the road from the fire station.
“We wanted to get [the truck driver] as far away from there as possible,” said Getz, 39, of Nazareth. “You could hear things blowing up in there.”
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Photo above from Dan Clerico.
