The heavy storms that came through the area kept emergency crews busy yesterday.
Among the many calls that went out yesterday were two structure fire calls. One was reported by Indiana County 911 5:35 PM at 690 Virginia Avenue in Indiana Borough, with Indiana Fire Association, the RIT team, Indiana Borough Police and Citizens Ambulance dispatched to the scene, with Clymer and Creekside fire departments dispatched later on.
(Photo by Mark Bertig)
Indiana Fire Association assistant chief Lee Thompson said that it was a possibility that lightning struck the home, and said the damage was still being looked into.
A second structure fire was reported at 9:28 PM on Maple Avenue in Blairsville Borough. Blairsville, Black Lick, Coral-Graceton, Homer City and Derry fire departments were called out along with the RIT teams from Indiana and Derry, Citizens’ Ambulance and Blairsville Borough Police. Blairsville Fire chief Turk Berkley said a candle was the cause of the fire, and very little damage to a piece of furniture and a wall was reported. There were no injuries reported, and the family was able to move back in that night. Berkley reported that many of the other fire departments were cancelled en route to the fire.
Between 3:44 PM yesterday and 4:01 this morning, emergency crews responded to 11 reports of lines being down. Penelec reported about 1700 of their customers were without power in Indiana County, but REA Energy reported that nearly 2900 of their cooperative members were without power at the height of the storms. Crews have been working through the night to restore power, and right now a handful of outages remains for both companies.
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