The building is managed by the Philadelphia City Housing Authority, according to the fire department. According to previous knowledge, eight people would have lived in an apartment on the ground floor. In a second residential unit on the top two floors, 18 people lived – both numbers are provisional, the spokesman emphasized. There were four smoke alarms in the house, but none of them worked, it said.
The fire probably broke out in the open kitchen on the middle floor and hiked quickly up the stairs. “Nothing stopped this fire,” said the spokesman. “I have no words for what we’re feeling right now. I’ve been in the service for 35 years and this is one of the worst fires I’ve ever seen.”
The fire broke out in the morning for an unexplained cause in the middle floor of the three-story row house in the Fairmount district, the fire department had previously explained on Twitter. Accordingly, the fire was largely under control after around 50 minutes.
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