Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mailFirefighter hurt while battling Brookline fire
Battling the blaze
Heidi Murrin/Tribune-Review
Craig Smith is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-380-5646 or via e-mail.
The fire broke out at 4:29 p.m. and quickly escalated to a three-alarm blaze, with flames shooting through the roof of the three-story brick structure at Brookline Boulevard and Castlegate Avenue. Occupants in two apartments escaped safely, Assistant Chief Francis Deleonibus said.
The firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side. Neither the firefighter's name nor his condition was released.
The roof collapsed as ladder trucks stationed along Brookline Boulevard dumped water on the structure, which housed a printing business on the first floor and an apartment on each of the second and third floors.
The building is owned by Mel and Samar Abboud, who operate South Hills Printing on the structure's first floor. They watched firefighters fight the blaze from a nearby corner.
A damage estimate was not available. The building is valued at $128,300, according to Allegheny County records.
The origin of the fire was not known last night. Deleonibus said fire investigators were on the scene and working to determine a cause.
"I don't think it started on the first floor," he said.
The fire was brought under control at 5:55 p.m.
The Abbouds have owned the building for 15 years.
More Pittsburgh, Allegheny headlines
- Man shoots self, ending standoff in Avalon
- Chemical spill reported in Jefferson Hills
- GPS units steer truckers into trouble
- Cache of weapons, ammo seized from McCandless apartment
- Program for black students may grow
- Catholic schools' CPR program being extended to churches
- Volunteers travel through nation with mission to serve
- Planned closure of St. John of God School draws protest
