Fire Rescue News- Two Philadelphia Firefighters Killed Battling 5-Alarm Blaze

By Peter Mucha
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Lt. Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney were killed when the rear wall collapsed in a furniture store adjacent to a burning warehouse.

"With deep regret," Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers has disclosed the names of two Philadelphia firefighters who perished this morning battling a fire in a furniture store that spread from a raging five-alarm blaze that leveled an aging Kensington warehouse.

They were Lt. Robert Neary, 60, and firefighter Daniel Sweeney, both from Ladder 10.

Neary was hoping to retire soon, and Sweeney was the....Continue Reading

son of a recently retired fire captain, according to Ladder 10 colleagues.

Three other firefighters were taken to Temple University Hospital, where one was admitted with possible leg, hip or spine fractures. The other two were being evaluated, Ayers said this morning.

The five were trapped when a wall and part of the roof of the furniture store collapsed about 5:50 a.m., a little over a half-hour after the warehouse blaze had been declared under control.

It took firefighters about two hours to dig out all of the trapped firefighters, said Deputy Fire Commissioner Ernest Hargett.

"We're asking for prayers for the families," said Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. "This is a terrible tragedy."

"This is a tremendous loss for their families and the City of Philadelphia," said Mayor Nutter, who was in Tallahassee, Fla., for a conference on race and justice. Nutter was expected to fly back for an afternoon news conference.

The blaze in the warehouse at East York and Jasper Streets was reported about as a rubbish fire at 3:13 a.m. and esclated to a 5-alarm inferno within an hour as winds howled.

It was declared under control around 5:15 a.m., Hargett said.

Flames in the meantime had spread to six houses and the furniture store, located at Boston Street and Kensington Avenue, Hargett said.

A team of firefighters was attacking the fire inside the furniture store when the wall collapsed, burying them in bricks and timbers, Hargett said.

Firefighters immediately set to work digging out their comrades while others poured water on the smoldering ruins of the warehouse.

"It was a hard and tedious job," Harkett said the effort to remove rubble and timber pinning the firefighters.

At the height of the fire, officials, fearing flying embers would spark other blazes, evacuated scores of residents from nearby homes and hosed down surrounding buildings.

The Philadelphia Fire Department has not suffered a line-of-duty death since January 2006, when Tracy Champion, 49, a 21-year veteran, suffered a heart attack and died while seeking the source of a blaze in a house in West Philadelphia.

The last time multiple firefighters perished was in August 2004, when Capt. John Taylor, 53, and firefighter Rey Rubio, 42, were trying to extinquish a blaze in a Port Richmond basement that had been converted into marijuana greenhouse.

A plaque dedication in honor of the two men was scheduled for next week, Ayres said.

Today's fire erupted at a time when the entire region is under a red flag warning because conditions -- high winds, low humidity and dry ground cover -- are ripe for spreading fires.