Fire evacuates tenants of Millsboro apartment building
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Fire and emergency response crews work at the scene of a fire that evacuated tenants in a Millsboro apartment building Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters work to secure an apartment building on Mill Street in East Bethlehem Township after a fire Sunday afternoon.
A Millsboro apartment building was damaged by fire Sunday afternoon.
A neighbor who was cutting his grass at about 3:15 p.m. noticed the melting siding of the nearby apartment building and called 911, according to East Bethlehem Township Fire Chief Mark Giovanelli.
Giovanelli said the building, at 15 Mill St., has multiple apartment units on the second floor, but only one of them is occupied with two tenants who were safely evacuated Sunday. He said the building also houses the post office and several vacant storefronts, but neither the apartments nor the lower level stores were damaged. The only part of the building that sustained damage was a storage space in the back of the structure, he said.
“It seemed to be electrical and went up the outside wall,” Giovanelli said. “We were able to get in there and we vented quickly.”
Buena Vista, Richeyville, California, Fredericktown, Rices Landing and Bentleyville fire departments responded to the scene on the 80-degree day.
“We utilized a staging area to rotate crews before they got too hot,” Giovanelli said.