SCRANTON, Pa. — A tractor-trailer crashed into a home on Birney Avenue in Scranton just before 2 a.m. Friday and then caught on fire.
The flames spread to the front of the home. Scranton Fire Assistant Chief Brian Scott tells us two people were inside the home at the time of the crash, and both made it out safely. They’re staying at a local hotel.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to the hospital. There’s no word on their condition yet, or what caused the crash.
Neighbors Kimberly Turner and Darnel Kendricks heard the commotion from their homes.
"All of a sudden, I looked out my living room window, and there was just a truck in my neighbor's house on fire!" Kendricks said.
"It was like 1:50. I literally had just laid down. I heard a bang, and then the power went out, and then it started to surge. So I sprung up, everybody's yelling. I look out the window. It's on fire. Not a lot, just a little, and then it just slowly progressed, and it got worse and worse and worse," Turner recalled.
The tractor-trailer also hit a couple of parked cars and sheared a utility pole in half.
More than 1,800 homes and businesses were without power overnight. Electricity was restored by about 11 a.m.
Bob Zakraski, the owner of the Minooka Pastry Shop, says he has a lot of orders for the holiday weekend, including several weddings. His first order of business was getting in touch with those customers, not an easy feat when all his systems are down.
Then he has to worry about all of the ingredients he keeps refrigerated
"You have to buy a lot of that in advance because it's so hard to get things, so you have to stockpile," Zakraski said.
Zakraski's just glad it wasn't worse. The truck narrowly missed his shop.
Neighbors say the recent construction on Birney Avenue has made for some messy travel.
"Traffic has been insanity. It is not safe the way people drive on it," said Turner.
"People drive like 70 miles (an hour) up and down it, going the wrong way, especially with the bars and everything," Kendricks added. "It's horrible every direction you look at it."
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