Pittsburgh firefighter injured in 3-alarm blaze in Duquesne Heights

A Pittsburgh firefighter was slightly injured after he fell to the ground attempting to put out a fire in a house undergoing renovations in Duquesne Heights early Sunday, officials said.

Firefighters were called to a fire at 306 Meridan St. shortly before 5:45 a.m. When they arrived, there were heavy flames in the rear of the building. The fire quickly escalated to three alarms, said Cara Cruz, public safety spokeswoman.

No one was in the home when the fire broke out, but the renovations made the blaze challenging for firefighters, Cruz said.

Cruz said the second floor on one side of the house was missing, which is what caused the firefighter to fall through to the ground. The firefighter declined to be taken to a hospital, Cruz said.

“It was a very difficult fire due to the fact that the house was being renovated,” Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said in a news release. “There were numerous ceilings within the building so as soon as they thought they had the fire extinguished, it would reignite above where the firefighters were.”

The house also sits far back from the street, so firefighters had to pull a large amount of hose to extinguish the fire, Cruz said.

Firefighters kept the fire from spreading to an adjacent home. The people in that home were evacuated for their safety. No one from that home was hurt.

“It was very, very close, probably within a foot of the building that caught fire, that was probably our biggest challenge, ” Assistant Fire Chief Brian Kokkila said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Cruz said.

Firefighters were called to another fire just before 12:15 a.m at 301 Pensdale St. in Oakwood. No one was hurt in that fire, which is also under investigation, Cruz said.