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Flames Wreck Post Office And Apartments

KLINGERSTOWN — Flames destroyed apartments, wrecked a post office and displaced four families in Schuylkill County. Firefighters had their hands full in K...

KLINGERSTOWN -- Flames destroyed apartments, wrecked a post office and displaced four families in Schuylkill County.

Firefighters had their hands full in Klingerstown.  Fire started in one of four apartments around 2 p.m. Tuesday and also affected the post office.

Home delivery was not an issue but those with P.O. boxes will have to pick up their mail in nearby Valley View.

Gary Bork and others risked their lives by going into the post office, saving what they could.

"Mail, computers, just about everything expect for the vault, the safe that was in there. The fire was on the other end of the building at the time, just happened to come out and helped there was about 15 of us getting everything out," Bork said.

Four families got out, but not before a woman was trapped.

Stephen Leitzel said he and a friend sprang into action. They smashed a window to free her.

"We helped her off the roof, there (were) firefighters there and we lowered her down off the roof and got her to the paramedics.  She's lucky, very lucky she could have been a victim of that it was a pretty big fire."

The fire chief doesn't believe the blaze is suspicious.

First responder Fritz Snyder said firefighters had to deal with the flames and the cold, too.

"It was really bad, lot of the firefighters, we needed a lot of manpower and there was a lot of units that were called in because everybody was getting exhausted and cold."

Firefighters said the blaze happened in the afternoon, had it been at night with everyone sleeping, the outcome could have been a lot worse.

A state police fire marshal said the fire was started by an electrical problem and ruled the fire accidental.

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