Wilkes-Barre apartment building burns; owner says fire set intentionally

WILKES-BARRE — A fire that heavily damaged a South Sherman Street apartment building Tuesday afternoon was intentionally set, the owner believes.

Darren Snyder, who serves as Wilkes-Barre controller, said he was told by a firefighter that it appeared the blaze started on a second-floor back porch of the four-unit building.

An elderly tenant on the first floor, who was not identified, had previously reported noises upstairs, possibly from squatters, and Snyder said he responded by securing the two upstairs apartments.

“The (upstairs) apartments are vacant. I had all the doors nailed and the windows closed and locked,” Snyder said. The building at 46-48 S. Sherman St. is insured, he added.

The upstairs tenants had been evicted, Snyder said, but he worried that his property was being targeted.

“Directly behind here, the shed was set on fire last year,” he noted.

Wilkes-Barre City Fire Department Deputy Chief Alan Klapat said the cause of the blaze is under investigation. The fire, reported at 4:44 p.m., went to three alarms.

Ebony Tyre said her husband Victor and son Daivine helped evacuate the elderly tenant and a woman from a neighboring house.

Tyre, whose house is located on South Fulton Street behind the apartment building, said she watched flames shoot from the third floor above the porch as her husband and 21-year-old son went through the backyard to the burning building. “The back of it was already falling down,” she said.

Victor Tyre, 50, said they banged on the back door of the elderly woman and yelled. “Normally, you can knock on the door and she’ll come,” he said. But this time she didn’t, and his son went to the front of the house at 48 S. Sherman St. because he though she might be sleeping.

“She was already awake,” Daivine Tyre said. “I just helped her walk out the door.”

Lynn Seabrook was visiting with her elderly neighbor next door and sitting down to a late lunch in her first-floor apartment.

“Someone had banged on the door and said the house was on fire,” Seabrook said.

Another tenant who lives at 46 S. Sherman St. was out of town at the time of the fire, Klapat said.

A Wilkes-Barre firefighter with a hand injury emerges from the smoke of a three-alarm fire at a South Sherman Street apartment building Tuesday afternoon.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL081517Fire1-1.jpg.optimal.jpgA Wilkes-Barre firefighter with a hand injury emerges from the smoke of a three-alarm fire at a South Sherman Street apartment building Tuesday afternoon.

Flames and heavy smoke billow from the rear of an apartment building at 46-48 S. Sherman St in Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday afternoon. The owner said he was told the fire was started on the second-floor back porch.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL081517Fire2-1.jpg.optimal.jpgFlames and heavy smoke billow from the rear of an apartment building at 46-48 S. Sherman St in Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday afternoon. The owner said he was told the fire was started on the second-floor back porch.

A Wilkes-Barre police officer helps an elderly woman who was led to safety from a fire at her apartment building on South Sherman Street Tuesday afternoon.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL081517Fire3-1.jpg.optimal.jpgA Wilkes-Barre police officer helps an elderly woman who was led to safety from a fire at her apartment building on South Sherman Street Tuesday afternoon.

A blaze Tuesday afternoon at an apartment building at 46-48 S. Sherman St. in Wilkes-Barre that went to three alarms is under investigation.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_TTL081517Fire4-1.jpg.optimal.jpgA blaze Tuesday afternoon at an apartment building at 46-48 S. Sherman St. in Wilkes-Barre that went to three alarms is under investigation.

Victor Tyre of South Fulton Street in Wilkes-Barre said his son Daivine led an elderly woman from her burning apartment building on South Sherman Street Tuesday afternoon, and he helped a next-door neighbor to safety.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Victor-Tyre.jpg.optimal.jpgVictor Tyre of South Fulton Street in Wilkes-Barre said his son Daivine led an elderly woman from her burning apartment building on South Sherman Street Tuesday afternoon, and he helped a next-door neighbor to safety. Jerry Lynott | Times Leader