Mt. Oliver fire finally put out; displaced residents will try to start over

It took firefighters about a day to put out the last embers of a raging fire that destroyed at least six homes and heavily damaged five others in Mt. Oliver on Sunday, displacing more than 50 people.

American Red Cross officials put out a related flare-up on Monday morning.

The disaster relief agency said it moved a man and woman who lived in the Ormsby Avenue home where officials said the fire started to an undisclosed location because they argued at an emergency shelter with other neighborhood residents.

“A lot of people are upset, so we felt it was best to put them in a hotel for security reasons,” said Betsy Myers, disaster program specialist for Red Cross' Southwestern Pennsylvania chapter. What caused the fire remains undetermined, officials said.

The man and woman were the only victims to seek temporary housing at the shelter on Sunday night, set up in the Mt. Oliver fire department, Myers said. The rest of the victims stayed with family members and friends, the Red Cross said.

Victims trickled into the fire department throughout Monday, seeking emergency help ranging from replacements for lost medications to clothes, food and housing.

Mt. Oliver Assistant Fire Chief Ron Lowrey dismissed claims that firefighters took too long to respond and faced problems such as low water pressure. Mayor James Cassidy could not be reached for comment.

“It probably took us three or four minutes to get on scene from the time we got the call” at 10:18 a.m., Lowrey said, noting a volunteer firefighter reported the fire after driving past and continued to the fire department about a half-mile away, then got behind the wheel of a ladder truck and raced to the scene. Records of the call and response times were unavailable on Monday.

Lowrey said the fire spread quickly through six wood-frame houses on the west side of Ormsby. Each produced a column of flame that rose several stories into the air; wind carried embers and fireballs — some the size of softballs and footballs, witnesses said — onto four homes across the street and one on neighboring St. Joseph Street.

Lowrey called it the worst Mt. Oliver fire he could remember in his three decades with the department.

“I can't explain it. It's like the fireballs just went over and around my house,” said Cornell Grace, 59, shaking his head as he stared at his Ormsby home, which suffered roof damage and had smoke and water damage inside but appeared to be in good shape compared to the three boarded-up, charred homes on either side of his.

“God, I guess. That's how you explain it,” said Grace, a housekeeper at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Oakland.

Shaun Gloeckl, 29, held one of his 18-month-old twins as he looked at debris that used to be his home. Gloeckl and his girlfriend, Debbie Stevens, have daughters ages 4 and 6. They were in the process of buying the home they were renting at 197 Ormsby.

The fire-torn block of Ormsby remained bustling with activity throughout the day. Area residents flocked there to see the destruction, talk with neighbors, take photos and speculate on what happened. The smell of charred wood and soot carried several blocks away.

“We lost everything. I don't think we can pull anything out of the rubble,” Gloeckl said. “We have a lot of people helping us. It's amazing how people come together for people in need.”

Just up the street, Potter's House Ministries is serving as a drop-off point for a wide range of donations to aid victims. Clothes, toys, bookbags, blankets and toiletries were among items filling dozens of pews inside. Some people donated mattresses.

“People haven't stopped coming in with items to donate. People are just being generous. They're trying to make a bad situation more bearable,” said Potter's House Bishop Otis Carswell.

Joe Bryden's eyes welled up when he learned about the donations pouring into Potter's House. Bryden, 33, and his girlfriend and four children, ages 7 to 14, live next door to Grace — in the home where Bryden's father Robert, 64, now of Whitehall, raised four children.

The younger Bryden said he hoped to move back into the home at some point. Yet, he wasn't sure where he was going to sleep Monday night.

“We're just going to take it one day at a time. That's all we can do,” Bryden said.

Allegheny County Emergency Services Chief Alvin Henderson Jr. said an investigation could “go on for days, weeks, possibly months.”

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal's Office is heading the investigation. Henderson said the office was continuing to examine the scene and interview victims and witnesses

Two of the 52 residents displaced were treated for breathing problems, while one of the more than 150 firefighters who battled the fire was treated for heat exhaustion, said Mt. Oliver fire Capt. Anthony Gigliotti. One of the injured residents, Loretta Marburger, 71, remained hospitalized at UPMC Mercy, officials said.

“For all this catastrophic damage, we were lucky,” Gigliotti said.

Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine@tribweb.com.