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Residents Question Response Time after South Williamsport Fire

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT — Some people in South Williamsport are upset about a fire that happened Thursday night. Since two of the borough’s fire companie...
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SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- Some people in South Williamsport are upset about a fire that happened Thursday night.

Since two of the borough's fire companies merged, residents believe firefighters' response times were slower than they should have been.

People who live in the neighborhood tell Newswatch 16 they rescued the children from the house and even tried to fight the fire with a garden hose.  Neighbors were nervous because the flames got bigger and bigger but they didn't hear any sirens.

Smoke and flames could be seen for miles away coming out of the house on Riverside Drive in South Williamsport on Thursday.

Lisa Edmond was talking to one of the tenants and her children moments before the fire.  She says the children ran inside the house and that's when she saw the flames.

"She screamed, 'My babies are in there!' And we immediately went over to try to get them out of the back," Edmond recalled.

The house is destroyed.  Neighbors believe the damage would have been less if the firefighters' response time was faster.

"The ambulance was here before the fire department," said Edmond.

People who live around there are upset because the closest fire company is about four blocks away.  It was recently decertified by the borough.  They believe this fire company could have gotten to the scene faster.

Neighbors tell Newswatch 16 it took firefighters 20 minutes to get to the scene.

South Williamsport borough manager Michael Miller says that is not correct.

"We had the police on scene in two minutes.  The fire chief was on scene in seven and nine, ten minutes after that we had the ladder truck arriving," said Miller.

Recently, borough officials consolidated the three fire companies.  Independent Fire Company did not go along with the merger.  It no longer has insurance, so it cannot fight fires.

"My protection is in danger due to politics," said neighbor Tim Shannon.

Neighbors do not blame the firefighters.

"The team that came was awesome and they went right to, they were great, but I've never seen, being that there's a fire department so close on either side of us, how that would take so long," said Edmond.

The fire chief has not yet released a cause for the fire.

One of the residents was hurt in the fire.  Friends say she has second-degree burns on her feet after running inside to get her children.

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