One dead and four injured in Nicetown rowhouse fire where neighbors helped occupants escape
Neighbors told first responders that a woman jumped from a window to escape, while a man next door helped occupants to safety.
One man is dead and four others — including an infant — were injured after a rowhouse caught fire in Nicetown early Wednesday morning.
Flames had engulfed a rowhouse on the 1900 block of Dennie Street just after 2 a.m., the Philadelphia Fire Department and police confirmed. First responders encountered “heavy fire” on the first floor and “smoke throughout” the three-story residence, Assistant Fire Chief Harry Bannan told reporters.
A dozen people were inside, with neighbors helping four children and three adults escape, according to a fire department spokesperson. NBC10 reported that a woman in the burning home passed a baby through a third-floor window to a man next door.
That man also helped two men and four children escape into a neighboring rowhouse, NBC10 reported.
When firefighters arrived, they discovered a 62-year-old man unconscious on the first floor. He was immediately pronounced dead.
The fire department also took a 38-year-old woman to Temple University Hospital, where she was in critical condition “with serious injuries,” Bannan said. Neighbors told first responders that they watched her jump from a second-story window to escape the flames, the fire department spokesperson said.
A 33-year-old man is also in critical condition at Temple University Hospital, according to police. A 19-year-old woman and month-old infant were also hospitalized, the fire department spokesperson said. Their conditions were not known.
Flames did not spread to the neighboring rowhouses, said the fire department spokesperson, but fire marshals are still investigating the fire’s cause. Bannan told reporters that first responders did not hear smoke alarms when they arrived on the scene, but that the alarms could have already been damaged by the blaze.
Eleven people have been displaced by the fire — including the four who are hospitalized — the fire department spokesperson said. The American Red Cross is helping them find shelter, Bannan said.