Recent Incidents
LTFD Assists LCFD At Poplar St. Dwelling Fire
June 14th, 2006, 4:00 PM
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PHOTOS
Poplar Street Fire Displaces Two Families
By Larry Alexander, Intelligencer Journal Staff
Intelligencer Journal
LANCASTER CITY, PA - When Kysha Payne's family
got together Tuesday to plan activities for her 27th birthday, having
her house catch fire was not on the list.
"I had a pleasant birthday," Payne said. "It was simple. The kids
brought me flowers and cards. They took me out to breakfast and lunch. We
had cake and ice cream, and then there was the fire."
The blaze
that swept through the third floor of her home at 613 Poplar St., as well
as the home next door, was discovered around 4 p.m. by Payne's 13-year-old
son, Jahmeer. He had gone upstairs to his third-floor room to change
clothes.
"I smelled smoke, and I opened up the storage-room door
and the room was on fire," he said.
Jahmeer quickly ran downstairs
and warned family, most of whom were already outside.
"(Jahmeer)
came out saying his room was on fire, and we looked and smoke was just
coming out the third floor from the fire," said Dorthea Alexander, Payne's
sister. "We don't know what started it. We just had to get everybody out of
the house."
Payne said by the time her son burst out the back door,
she had already smelled the smoke.
"We looked up, and there was
fire coming through the back window," she said.
The most important
thing, she said, was to get her 79-year-old father, Junnie Payne, out of
his second-floor room. That was accomplished quickly. When firefighters
arrived, no one was left inside.
The same was true for the
next-door neighbors.
At 611 Poplar St., William Price, 50, was
vacuuming the second-floor front bedroom, preparing to paint it as a
nursery for his yet-to-be-born son.
Price began to smell smoke. He
picked up the vacuum and sniffed it to determine where the smoke was
coming from.
Jackie Warrington, who is six-months' pregnant, was
lying down. She also smelled the smoke.
Price opened a door leading
to the third floor and was confronted by "pitch black" smoke. He also heard
"popping and felt heat from the fire."
Warrington went outside and
called 911.
Price rushed back into the house to save his cat but
couldn't find it. He did manage to carry out numerous baby-shower gifts.
The cat was later rescued by firefighters.
Outside, Warrington said
she saw flames lapping from the windows at 613 Poplar St..
The
couple, who do not have renter's insurance, moved to Lancaster two years
ago from Boston. There, Warrington said, houses are not connected as they
are in Lancaster, so fires do not spread as easily.
"There when
something like this happens, you at least have a chance," she
said.
Still, she was grateful the fire broke out in the
daytime.
"I'm just glad it happened at 4 p.m. instead of 4 a.m.,"
she said.
At 609 Poplar St., a neighbor knocked on Stacy El-Abadi's
door and told her to wake up her husband, Mohammed, 38, because there was a
fire.
"We came out and saw all kinds of smoke coming off the roof,"
El-Abadi, 34, said.
The couple fled with their 4-year-old son,
Youssef.
Lancaster Fire Chief Timothy Gregg said the third floors
of 613 and 611 Poplar St. were fully involved in the fire when trucks
arrived on the scene.
He said the fire went to four alarms -- not
because it was a particularly difficult fire to fight, but because of the
weather.
"We called everybody in," Gregg said. "It's a very hot
day. The on-duty crews got tired very quickly."
Firefighters
contained the blaze mostly to the third floor and kept it from spreading
to 609 Poplar St. thanks to their quick response and a firewall between
the homes.
The cause of the fire was unknown Tuesday
night.
"The fire is still under investigation," Gregg
said.
Two firefighters were injured, one with a cut hand and
another with a possible broken finger. About 45 firefighters were on the
scene.
The Red Cross is helping to provide temporary lodging for
Payne, her father and her sons, Jahmeer, Jahmall, 12, and Hajji, 14, as
well as Warrington and Price.
Payne has renter's insurance, which
should help her and her family rebuild, but the family still feels a sense
of loss.
"Everything my son owns is on that third floor," she
said.
Jahmeer would agree.
"My world went up in flames," he
said.
Despite that, the family is thankful everyone made it out OK,
and with the help of friends and family, Payne feels confident about the
future.
"I have faith," she said. "I'm upset, but I'm going to be
OK."
Intelligencer Journal staff reporter Brett Lovelace
contributed to this story.
"The kids brought me flowers and cards.
They took me out to breakfast and lunch. We had cake and ice cream, and
then there was the fire."
Kysha Payne
Birthday spoiled by
fire
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