FIRE AT THE BRICKYARD

TWO FIREFIGHTERS INJURED

Elyria – Firefighters in Elyria were busy early Thursday morning battling a blaze at the old Murbach Supply Warehouse “The Brickyard” on North Street.

Chief Joe Pronesti of the Elyria Fire Department said they received the call after neighbors saw smoke coming from the abandoned building. “When our guys arrived they found heavy smoke coming from the building – they went into an interior attack. The conditions worsened and the guys were pulled back out. We ventilated and then went back inside and knocked down the fire.”

Pronesti said that along with the fire, the building came with some obstacles for the Firefighters. “There were holes in the floor – the holes were actually old coal chutes used by Murbach Coal. Way back when they would receive coal deliveries the trucks would back up to the building and drop the coal through these chutes and that is how they would distribute the coal. The problem was a lot of the man hole covers were off of the chutes and that’s where a couple of our guys stepped into them.”

Two Firefighters were injured while performing over haul on the building. Pronesti said that one of the men remain on duty while the other was transported to the hospital with neck and back injuries.

Pronesti said that due to low manpower mutual aid assistance was called from surrounding communities. “When we run four Engines the fourth one is acts as our RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) but because we only had three we had Avon respond to the scene. Originally they were acting as our RIT but then we put them to work inside of the building.”

Sheffield Village and Lorain provided assistance by covering the stations in case of another call within the city.

The Fire Prevention Bureau is investigating the cause of the blaze.



PHOTO GALLERY

CORRECTION: It was written in this story that the two Firefighters were injured when they stepped into a coal chute hole. Although Firefighters did run across those obstacles with open coal chute holes, the two Firefighters that were injured actually had a ceiling collapse on them during overhaul.

UPDATE: In a conversation with Chief Pronesti tonight he reports that the Firefighter that was taken to the hospital from the scene last night was treated and released. “That was Pat Monda and he is resting at home, a little sore still, but he will be fine. The other Firefighter, Dean Marks, was called in last night and today is his regular duty day so he is still on duty right now and also doing fine.”