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Fires ruin 3 homes, damage bar Up to two dozen people left homeless Friday, February 16, 2001 By M. Ferguson Tinsley and Joel Rosenblatt, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
A series of fires yesterday gutted three homes and damaged a popular sports bar in Dormont, leaving as many as two dozen people homeless.
One of the more serious of the fires occurred yesterday morning in Sheraden. Jeremy and Tawnya Pattillo grabbed their children and fled their home at 3271 Tuxedo St. at about 7 a.m. after Kevin Daly, a neighbor, pounded on their door and yelled, "It's a fire! Get out!"
The fire had started next door at 3273 Tuxedo St. on the first floor of the home of Mark Jurzombek and Carol Schrenker, who were away at the time. Battalion Chief Guy Lampano said adjacent houses at 3271 and 3275 Tuxedo also were damaged by fire, water and smoke but no residents were hurt.
Kevin and Dennis Daly, who live at 3275 Tuxedo, told emergency workers that the fire at the Jurzombek/Schrenker home was so intense that it burned through their wall and set off their smoke alarms.
That sent the Dalys running through the neighborhood pounding on doors.
Tawnya Pattillo said when they came to her door at 3271 Tuxedo, she and her husband were still in bed anticipating the work day.
"He said, 'Who could that be at the door at this time of the morning?"' Tawnya said of her husband, Jeremy. "He wasn't planning to get up yet."
The Pattillos, along with their children, Corie Chiodo, 11, and Jakob and Sarah Pattillo, 1 and 3, got out safely, but the aluminum siding on the west side of their house was singed and melted. Damage was set at $10,000.
The Daly brothers' home sustained an estimated $20,000 in damage and the Jurzombek/Schrenker home had an estimated $70,000 in damage.
Fire Capt. Mike Broderick was treated at Allegheny General Hospital after he pulled chest muscles while fighting the blaze. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Around 2 o'clock the same morning, a rowhouse at 5002 Chaplain Way in Hazelwood went up in flames.
Its resident, Joseph Popoleo, 48, was in critical condition yesterday at Mercy Hospital. He had first- and second-degree burns on his hands and face and was suffering from smoke inhalation.
Investigators say the fire started in Popoleo's kitchen and spread to Valerie Thomas' home via the connecting roofs.
Thomas, of 5004 Chaplain, was treated for smoke inhalation at Magee Womens Hospital.
By 3:17 a.m., 59 firefighters had quelled the blaze. One firefighter, David Smith, who pulled a muscle and twisted his knee, was treated at Allegheny General Hospital.
In Blawnox, the Doug Van Horn family home at 1015 North Ave. was destroyed when a fire erupted inside it at about 9 a.m. Firefighters say no one was at home when the blaze started in a second-floor bedroom. It took five fire companies almost two hours to extinguish the flames.
Yet another fire broke out about 5:30 p.m. at Slapshots, a Dormont sports bar at 2999 W. Liberty Ave.
Dormont Fire Chief Michael Auth said nobody was injured, but Red Cross assisted 10 to 14 residents who lived in several apartments above the bar. They were told they will not be able to return to the building for at least two weeks while officials examine the building's electrical system.
Traffic was backed up on West Liberty Avenue and on Hillsdale Avenue for three hours, until the fire was extinguished at 8:30 p.m. Auth said the fire started in the electrical panel in the basement of the bar. Forty firefighters from four or five companies ripped through the first floor of the building to get at the fire.
The fire caused about $30,000 of damage to the bar, but no apartments on the second and third floor were damaged, Auth said. Electrical power for the tenants ran through a different panel, but Duquesne Light cut electricity to the entire building until a full investigation is completed.
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