WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Crews were called out Friday morning to fight a fire in Wilkes-Barre.
It started in a home in the 100 block of Dana Street after 8 a.m.
Three buildings were damaged: two double-block homes and a single.
No one was hurt. Eight people were forced to leave.
"It was just a complex fire," said Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney. "When you have three buildings that are on fire at the same time, and it took a while for us to search all three of the houses, to search them. The fire was moving really fast. There were a lot of things to do with the staff that we had. And we're fortunate that we had the firefighters come from Kingston and Hanover, Nanticoke."
William Nice got the call from his mother about the fire and rushed over to help her out.
"I immediately went to go see my mom and my dad and, you know, see where everybody was. My sister was actually staying at a neighbor's house, in the back way of the alley. So I checked on her, calmed her down. She was pretty scared," Nice said.
The chief said it took about an hour and 20 minutes for crews to fight the fire. The small space between the buildings was a challenge.
"Because of the heavy fire load and the buildings being so close to each other. The fire hopped from one building to the second, and into the third, and fortunately our crews did a great job. along with firefighters from Kingston and red team from Hanover Township."
Although his parents lost almost everything, Nice agrees.
"They were here before I was, and as far as I knew, I was called directly after 911, and I got here in less than 10 minutes, so they were very quick to respond. These guys are brave and very relieving to have a part of the community for sure."
Nice set up a GoFundMe for his parents here.
A Wilkes-Barre Fire Department investigator will try to determine the cause.