Firefighters battle Redstone Township house fire in bitterly-cold conditions
Ed Riedmann
A school bus was brought in to use as a makeshift warming station for firefighters who battled a Redstone Township blaze in Friday蘑菇视频 frigid cold.
Courtesy of Daniel Cocks
Crawford Avenue in Connellsville on Friday morning was empty except for snow and ice that covered the region throughout the morning.
Firefighters battled bitterly-cold temperatures Friday morning while fighting a house fire in Redstone Township.
Nearly a dozen departments were called to the blaze at 549 Colonial Ave. near Grindstone shortly after 10 a.m. and found heavy fire coming from the residence, according to the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency.
The house was heavily damaged, although it was not immediately clear if anyone was inside at the time or if any injuries were reported. Grindstone Volunteer Fire Department was assisted at the scene by 10 other departments 鈥� including several from Washington County 鈥� and the state police fire marshal was called to investigate the cause of the blaze.
A school bus was brought to the scene to be used as a warming shelter for firefighters as the temperature dipped below 0 and the wind chill made it feel like -25 degrees.
While firefighters dealt the frigid weather conditions battling the house fire, no other major issues were reported in Fayette County except for several minor power outages that were quickly restored.
No warming shelters were scheduled to open in the county due to concerns about how icy road conditions could affect people driving to the centers, especially in the ridges. Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln said they had two warming centers on standby in the city if they were needed, but no one had requested that they be opened as of noon Friday.
鈥淭hankfully, so far, this wind has not caused any power outages 鈥� because that would be something that would cause a major disaster with how cold it is,鈥� Lincoln said. 鈥淲hat really saved us is we didn鈥檛 have the ice accumulate on the power lines.鈥�
There also weren鈥檛 any warming shelters setup in Greene County, where Emergency Management Director Rich Policz said they made it through the storm relatively unscathed. There were reports in Waynesburg of traffic lights being out and some businesses without power, but those issues were rectified relatively quickly, Policz said.
鈥淣ow that the winds have died down, it蘑菇视频 really not that bad out there right now. And the snow has been a non-issue,鈥� Policz said. 鈥淚f you used common sense out there, you were in good shape.鈥�