No one injured in Lower Burrell house fire spotted by New Ken fire chief

New Kensington’s fire chief was working in Lower Burrell late Monday morning when he came across a house fire.

In addition to serving as city fire chief, Ed Saliba Jr. is the distribution superintendent for the Municipal Authority of the City of New Kensington, which services Lower Burrell.

Saliba was doing authority work when he noticed smoke coming from 507 Arizona Drive.

“I did a double take. I looked and I said, ‘Holy hell, that house is on fire!’” Saliba said.

Saliba walked around the two-story house and found it was locked. He said he could hear fire inside the back door, so he grabbed a couple of fire extinguishers from his truck and broke down the door.

“I started to knock the fire down to control it and, by that time, the engine pulled up with their crew and they stretched the line and they basically put the fire out,” Saliba said.

The one-alarm blaze was reported about 10:30 a.m., according to Mark Marmo, chief of Lower Burrell Volunteer Fire Co. No. 3. Firefighters had it out within 15 minutes.

It was caused by a malfunctioning compressor unit on the kitchen refrigerator, Marmo said. The house was vacant and undergoing renovations.

No one was injured. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the kitchen, which suffered moderate damage. There also was moderate smoke damage throughout the house.

“Unfortunately, even a small fire like that can do some moderate damage to a home,” Marmo said. “It burned cabinetry above (the fridge) and burned a hole through the floor below it.”

Saliba said this is the first time while working for the water authority he’s come across a fire that hadn’t already been reported.

“Thank God nobody was home,” Saliba said. “There was a considerable amount of smoke in the house. I heard the smoke detectors going off. I was really concerned about somebody being in the house.”