7 firefighters hurt in massive fire that destroyed Penn Hills plaza

PENN HILLS, Pa. — Intense flames destroyed the Churchill Center in Penn Hills Sunday, causing $1.5 million in damage.

The initial call for the fire came in around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Crews are still putting water on the building along Frankstown Road Monday afternoon.

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Seven firefighters were hurt, four because of an explosion in the back of the building, one with an ankle injury and the other two were treated for heat exhaustion.

All are expected to be OK.

Thick smoke and flames shot into the sky for almost 12 hours.

The plaza houses multiple businesses including Eagle Rental Purchase, Cefola's Cleaners, DON Services and Big Shot Bob's House of Wings.

All four businesses and the plaza are destroyed.

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A gas line was on fire in the building, quite literally adding fuel to the fire.

Water became useless making it extremely challenging for firefighters.

“When you are able to walk away from a fire after an incident like that, it’s a win. Your vehicles could be replaced, your equipment can be replaced, but a firefighter cannot.” Penn Hills Fire Station 7 Chief Bill Jeffcoat said.

Peoples Gas arrived at the scene around 9:45 p.m. Sunday and crews were digging with an excavator to find the gas line.

Monday morning, Peoples Gas issued the following statement about the timeline for its response to the fire:

We arrived at the scene of the fire within thirty minutes of the 911 call. There were three service lines feeding gas. Two of them were to the building that caught fire. A third line went to an adjacent building. Shortly after our arrival, gas service was shut off to the adjacent building and service was also shut off to the meters located in the rear of the affected building. 
There were meters at the front of the affected building, fed by one service line. These meters were located inside the burning building. The shut off valve to the service line which led to the front meters could not be located immediately because instead of the originally placed Peoples Gas cover, the valve box lid had a water cover placed over it. 
Once we verified the shutoff valve as gas and not water, we were not able immediately to shut off the valve because fire equipment was strategically placed to fight the fire and obstructed complete access to the valve. 
We dug a hole in the parking lot adjacent to the truck to verify that the shut off valve was, in fact, a gas shut off valve and not a water valve. To operate the valve, we had to cut our standard steel valve key in half and angle it under the bumper of the fire vehicle. This was accomplished while working in running water four to five inches deep. 
We evaluated the option of shutting the main gas line on Frankstown Road. However this would have involved excavating two new holes in the roadway to cut and cap the gas flow. We would have had to cut through concrete to reach the pipe. The holes would have measured a minimum of five by six feet. Each would have had to be a minimum of five feet deep. We ruled out this option because it would have been more time consuming than the action we pursued.

"I know that city council, mayor will be addressing utility company later on," said Chuck Miller, the fire marshal for Penn Hills. "It shouldn't have taken this long to do what needed to be done."

Frankstown Road was closed in both directions.

Here is a map to show you where the fire was burning:

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