Harmar riverfront fire battle without hydrants closes Freeport Road, stops train traffic

When popping sounds from her neighbor’s burning home woke Holly Bills up early Saturday morning, her fire safety training kicked in.

She knew to get out and away from her home along the Allegheny River in Harmar, but it wasn’t easy.

“I had difficulty opening the door because the siding had melted over my door,” she said. “I left with just the shirt on my back.”

Bills wasn’t hurt in the fire that damaged her home on Werner Camp Road and caused severe damage to the home of her neighbor, an unidentified man who officials and neighbors said also got out unhurt.

The fire at 23 Werner Camp Road was reported just before 5 a.m. Volunteer firefighters from Allegheny Valley, Oakmont, Blawnox, Frazer and Verona responded, Allegheny Valley fire Chief Jay Zangrille said.

Because there are no hydrants in the area, Zangrille said, crews had to use hydrants in the business district across Freeport Road.

That required closing the four-lane road and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks for about an hour, he said.

Firefighters had the blaze under control in about a half-hour and were at the scene for about three hours, Zangrille said. No firefighters were hurt.

The fire appeared to start at the back porch and spread to the house, Zangrille said. The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office was investigating the cause.

The lack of hydrants in the riverfront neighborhood is a concern of residents, including Karen Kolodziej, who lives a couple doors down from the fire scene.

She recalled seeing water line work in the area in recent years.

“They should have put hydrants in,” she said.

The fire “was pretty intense,” Kolodziej said.

“I heard the popping and thought somebody was shooting off firecrackers,” she said. “The flames were shooting 50 feet into the sky. It was totally engulfed.”

Shari Nury, another neighbor, heard crackling, saw sparks and called 911.

“It sounded like fireworks,” she said.

Nury was relieved when she saw the man who lives in the house, who she knows as Bill, come out. She said he likes to sit on his deck and listen to music on weekends.

“We were just dancing on his deck two weeks ago,” she said.

The Red Cross was helping the man displaced from his home, including a place to stay at a hotel, Zangrille said.

Nury said he gave her the food from his freezer.

“I told him my door’s open,” she said.

Bills is also out of her home, because in addition to melting the siding, the heat also damaged her electric meter, which was removed, and her plumbing. The house is a second one for Bills, her other being in Bedford.

She wasn’t expecting an insurance adjuster to arrive until Monday.

Because of her fire safety training, Bills was worried that some of her neighbors were getting too close to the fire. They also wanted her to move her work SUV, parked between the two houses and also damaged by heat.

But she wasn’t going back for the keys.

“Life is more important than a vehicle,” she said.