Sylvia Forshey was inside her son's Mt. Oliver apartment Thursday afternoon when she heard the fire alarms start to wail. She walked onto the back porch of the apartment on Brownsville Road and saw flames shooting from the roof.
"I yelled, 'Oh my God, fire!' " Forshey said. "Then I ran back inside and started banging on doors, trying to get everyone out.
I was absolutely panicking. I can't believe how fast the building went up in flames." No one was injured when the five-alarm fire broke out about 12:30 p.
m., but the three-story building was destroyed, Allegheny County Deputy Fire Marshal Mike Shawley said. More than 60 firefighters and about 10 trucks from Mt.
Oliver, Castle Shannon, Pleasant Hills, Brentwood and Baldwin Borough battled the fire for three hours. At one point, six fire hoses were trained on the building's third floor, where the fire continued to erupt each time firefighters put it out. The building's roof collapsed, and firefighters cut the power lines that ran to the building.
Investigators said they don't know how the fire started, but they suspect it began in a third-floor apartment. Davin Gartley, 31, owns the building and said there are 10 units inside, two of which were vacant at the time of the fire. He said about 10 tenants live in the building.
A clothing alteration shop on the building's first floor sustained heavy smoke and water damage, officials said. "It looks like the building is a total loss," Gartley said. "This is crazy.
" Paul Jones, 25, lived on the building's second floor and was at a friend's house nearby when he got a call about the fire. "This is a shame," said Jones, who doesn't have renter's insurance. Jill King Greenwood can be reached at jgreenwood@tribweb.
com or 412-321-2160. Back to headlines Sylvia Forshey was inside her son's Mt.
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