| Scranton firefighters found two
inoperable fire hydrants while battling a December fire at the home of an 87-year-old
woman who would later die at the Lehigh Valley Burn Center in Allentown. Firefighters
agree that the bad hydrants did not affect their ability to pull the victim from the fire,
but the incident illustrates the continuing hydrant crisis the city is facing.
When Lt. J.W. Davis and Firefighter Ken Czyzyk, both of Rescue 1, arrived at the home
of Betty Adley, 942 Woodlawn St., they immediately went into the burning building.
Crawling on the floor beneath thick smoke, they rescued Ms. Adley, who had suffered burns
to her face, hands and arms.
Other firefighters quickly snuffed out the fire using water stored in tanks on their
trucks. The fire was confined mainly to a couch and other furniture in the two-story
wood-framed home. It took place three days after Christmas.
There were two bad plugs, says Acting Assistant Chief Paul Laskowski, who was on the
fire scene. Fortunately, we didnt really need them.
A neighbor saw the fire early and we got there so quickly we were able to get it out
with the 750 gallons stored on Rescue 1.
The two malfunctioning plugs have since been replaced.
Less than a block away from one of the plugs is St. Clares, a parochial school attended
by more than 240 students daily. A block away at North Washington Avenue and Park Street
is St. Clares Church, where Fire Chief Harvey Applegate says the water has been turned off
to two other plugs.
Chief Applegate says he does not know why the water has been turned off to them.
We plan to check them out, he said.
St. Clares principal, Sister Margaret Mary Kane, said she was not aware that the
hydrants next to the school were not working. Any further comment, she said, would have to
come from the churchs pastor, Monsignor Joseph Fadden, who is ill and could not be reached
for comment.
Bishop James Timlin said he was pleased to learn that the malfunctioning hydrants on
Woodlawn Street have been replaced. And while he is concerned about the plugs at North
Washington Avenue and Park Street not working, he noted that fire drills are held
regularly at the school.
Its also a one-story building, he said. The children can jump out of the windows if
they have to.
The faulty plugs are among about 140 malfunctioning fire hydrants in the city.
A week ago Mr. Applegate told The Sunday Times that he knew when hydrant flow tests
came back from the Pennsylvania-American Water Co. last year that the city had a problem.
He also said he knew the problem rested with Edward Joyce, the citys former fire hydrant
inspector who was not doing the job.
Its the hydrant inspectors job to inspect, repair and replace faulty hydrants in the
city, but the chief said Mr. Joyce frequently did not come to work and when he did report
he frequently went home early, sometimes leaving a plug he was working on dismantled until
he showed up the next day.
He was given the job even though he scored fourth on a Civil Service test and had not
reported to work for some 13 months.
Two weeks ago Mr. Joyce voluntarily resigned as the fire hydrant inspector and Joseph
Perroti, who scored second on the Civil Service test, was named to it.
During Mr. Perrotis first week on the job, nearly 10 hydrants were repaired or
replaced.
Because the fatal fire on Woodlawn Street was reported quickly and firefighters were
quick to get on the scene, Mr. Laskowski says the faulty hydrants were not really a
factor.
It was put out in minutes, he said.
A report by Timothy Lavelle, the citys fire inspector, indicates the fire may have been
caused by a lit cigarette falling on a chair. It also indicates that Ms. Adley may have
suffered a heart attack before dropping a lit cigarette on the chair.
The chair, Mr. Lavelle reported, exhibited all the characteristics of a fire started by
a cigarette.
Officials at Community Medical Center, where Ms. Adley was taken before being
life-flighted to the Lehigh Valley Burn Center, also told the inspector that she had
suffered a heart attack. Ms. Adley died five days after the fire.
I have to believe, Mr. Lavelle wrote in his report, that the heart attack occurred
before the fire. She was probably having a cigarette when the heart attack occurred,
causing her to drop the cigarette on a cushion. |
