Video: Rowhome fire creates plume of dark smoke in South Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA - Quite a scare in a South Philadelphia neighborhood Tuesday night after a fire broke out on top of a rowhome, sending a plume of dark smoke into the air.
Video from X, formerly known as Twitter, shows what firefighters were up against around 6:30 p.m. as they responded to a house fire on the 1300 block of McClellan Street in South Philadelphia.
FOX 29's Dawn Timmeney spoke to Anthony Fontana who lives right around the corner.
"When I looked up, I couldn't believe the flames. It was pretty bad, and I thought the whole street might catch on fire. The flames were so bad that I got really upset," he said.
Another neighbor could see the smoke and flames as he was coming down 13th street and was worried it was his home.
"It was bad. Like I said, I was a block away but I could see the smoke and fire and as I was standing here it got worse," said Ernie Anziano.
Firefighters responded quickly, pouring water on the flames to keep the fire from spreading to nearby row homes.
The thick, dark smoke could be seen for miles.
Mickey Pascarella lives two doors down and says his wife called him in a panic. "She was on the phone telling me there was fire. She was distraught. She was on the phone with one hand and then knocking on doors with the other hand to get people out of their houses."
Pascarella says the homeowner was on the first floor when the place burst into flames, but fortunately was able to get out.
"They were in the house, and they heard an explosion, and I was just saying we think it's the mini split air conditioner...I'm not a tech, but that's where the explosion came from, and the whole roof caught fire right where the mini split is," he explained,
There is no official word on the cause of the fire. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Neighbors credit the fire department for their immediate and awesome response, saying this could have been so much worse because these row homes are all connected and the entire block could have gone up.