Pittsburg, PA

Five firefighters injured, two by falling through roof, during Pittsburgh blaze

Published

2 years ago

January 21, 2024

Press Room

Five firefighters injured, two by falling through roof, during Pittsburgh blaze

The Associated Press
| York Dispatch

PITTSBURGH — Five firefighters were injured, two by falling through a roof, while battling a blaze at three buildings in a Pittsburgh neighborhood over the weekend, authorities said.

Fire crews were called just before 9:30 a.m. Saturday to the Homewood neighborhood where the fire started in one home and spread to two adjacent buildings that contained apartments.

Authorities said two firefighters fell through the roof of one of the homes while battling the flames. The roofs of at least two of the houses collapsed. All five injured firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries said not to be life-threatening, officials said.

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Matt Brown, chief of Allegheny County Emergency Services, said fire crews were hampered by temperatures in the teens and winds up to 20 mph. The cold froze one truck’s water pumps and tanks and also froze the closest fire hydrant, and a ladder on one truck also wasn’t working properly due to the cold, he said.

At one point, firefighters used a chainsaw to cut away a second-floor wall to reach the flames inside one of the apartment buildings.

Brown said nearly 100 firefighters, many of them volunteers from surrounding communities, responded to the fire, which was declared under control at about 1 p.m. Saturday. The county fire marshal’s office will investigate the cause.

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Pittsburg, PA

Extremely cold temperatures will be in place for the Pittsburgh area through the end of the week

Published

7 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Extremely cold temperatures will be in place for the Pittsburgh area through the end of the week.

Any Alert Days Ahead? Tuesday is a First Alert Weather Day due to wind chills potentially dipping to 25 degrees below zero. Friday and Saturday are likely First Alert Weather Days due to extreme cold.

Aware: Extreme cold warning in effect through 11 a.m. today, A cold weather advisory is in effect from 7 p.m. today through 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

There will be little escaping the cold over the next week, while outside, temperatures most mornings dip to 0° or below.

Highs are only expected to hit the mid-teens. When it gets this cold, we see a slew of cold-weather warnings and advisories being issued. For a general rule of thumb, warnings are always worse than advisories. So even without knowing why they are issued, you should think an Extreme Cold Warning is worse than a Cold Weather Advisory.

Extreme Cold Warnings are issued when wind chill values dip below twenty below zero. At these temperatures, you are looking at frostbite setting in 30 minutes or less. A Cold Weather Advisory is issued when wind chill values dip to lower than ten below zero but not more than twenty below zero.

KDKA Weather Center

So knowing that, we will likely see Cold Weather Advisories also issued for Wednesday evening to Thursday morning with morning temperatures near 0° and wind chills between -10° to -20°. Thursday evening to Friday morning, along with Friday evening to Saturday morning will likely see Extreme Cold Warnings issued with morning temperatures falling to around -5° on Friday morning and -8° on Saturday. It won’t take too much of a wind to get to the warning criteria on those days. If you must work outside for any long period, please take precautions against frostbite, including layering and covering up, along with making sure your skin isn’t dry.

At least there are no days when we are expecting to see several inches of snow incoming. We do have a chance for snow tonight, with our best chance coming after 5 this evening, with upslope snow showers possible for the rest of the evening. Snow totals will be an inch or less. Besides that, I don’t have anything more than an isolated snow chance through next Monday.