Owner of Damaged Building Plans to Rebuild

Three vacant structures heavily damaged by suspicious fire; officials investigating

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
June 18, 2024
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Only rubble remains of a vacant house on Federal Street destroyed in a suspicious fire early Sunday morning. Two neighboring abandoned houses also were destroyed and a neighboring apartment building and garage sustained damage. (Tube City Almanac photo)

The owner of a Jenny Lind Street apartment building damaged in a fire early Sunday morning said the blaze is a temporary setback.

“I’m trying to stay optimistic,” said Ahmad Francis, who also owns city-based Francis Masonry & Construction. “My wife and I were already planning to renovate it. We just have to do a little bit more, that’s all.”

Three vacant homes near the corner of Federal Street and Jenny Lind Street were destroyed early Sunday in a blaze that emergency personnel characterized as suspicious.

The Allegheny County fire marshal’s office is investigating and has not yet determined a cause, a spokeswoman said.

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None of the homes — one at 1833 Federal and two at 1837 Federal — were connected to utilities, McKeesport fire Chief Jeffrey Tomovcsik said.

Public records indicate that the owners of the two houses at 1837 Federal died in the mid-1990s.

Crews were dispatched at 2 a.m. Sunday when a passerby saw flames and called Allegheny County 9-1-1. Firefighters arrived to find one of the two buildings at 1837 Federal fully engulfed in flames, and the two neighboring structures beginning to smolder.

Tomovcsik said that due to the early morning hour, it was possible that the fire at 1837 Federal had been burning for some time before it was reported.

All of the buildings on Federal Street were wood-frame construction, Tomovcsik said, and had previously been condemned as unsafe.

The multi-family home and garage at 2105-07 Jenny Lind Street are separated from the fire scene by a narrow alley less than 10' wide. Radiant heat from the intense fire at 1837 Federal caused the damage to the Jenny Lind Street buildings, Tomovcsik said.

The call was escalated to three alarms, bringing in volunteer firefighters from Allegheny County Airport, Dravosburg, Duquesne Annex, Glassport, Homestead, Munhall stations No. 1 and 4, Fire Department of North Versailles, Port Vue, Rainbow, Swissvale and White Oak No. 1.

McKeesport public-works crews responded with heavy equipment to knock down a free-standing chimney and to assist in searching rubble at 1837 Federal, officials said.

Additional volunteers were on standby in McKeesport’s two fire stations, emergency personnel said.

The Salvation Army and McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service also responded. No injuries were reported, Tomovcsik said.

The two-car garage suffered fire damage to the rear and roof. Francis said the home at 2105, a brick two-story apartment building, sustained damage to the kitchen and roof area of a first-story apartment.

All of the fires were declared under control after about 90 minutes, according to a report, but firefighters remained on scene until 7:30 a.m. extinguishing hot spots. City firefighters then returned to the fire scene and remained there until after 9 a.m., Tomovcsik said.

Only a few feet separated an abandoned house destroyed in a fire and a brick apartment building and garage that were also damaged Sunday morning. (Tube City Almanac photo)

Francis and his wife, Audra, purchased the Jenny Lind duplex and the garage in 2021 and have been working to renovate them. They recently replaced the roof, he said.

Francis, who lives in the city, was awakened early Sunday morning by phone calls from neighbors telling him that the houses on Federal Street were on fire.

“We’ve worked with the city on other properties that we’re looking to repair in McKeesport,” he said. “We’re trying to do our part to bring it back.”

The garage is probably repairable, he said, and the damage to the home is not extensive. “It’s unfortunate, but my wife and me, our main aim is to clear up the blight on the property as soon as possible,” Francis said.

There have been several suspicious fires in abandoned houses in the city this year. A fire earlier this month on Grover Street that destroyed a vacant house was ruled accidental by the county fire marshal but remains under investigation by McKeesport and Allegheny County police after witnesses reported seeing a suspicious individual in the area before the blaze.

The Grover Street blaze is roughly six blocks from the site of Sunday’s fire.

A vacant house in the 500 block of Olive Street was heavily damaged in a fire in April.

Jason Togyer is volunteer executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc. and editor of Tube City Almanac.

Originally published June 18, 2024.

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