The Sunday Morning Sidewalk in Ashland PA: Another block burning

A beautiful cold spring morning in Ashland Pennsylvania has been besieged with the strange and putrid smell of smoke and heartache.. Yet another block has burned down on a Sunday morning in the town ..

This was an early report from the Schuylkill County Police Activity page as coal towns were awakened in the pre-dawn hours by the haunting sounds of fire whistles:

Ashland- 100 West Center- 3rd alarm working fire
Telling units to lay to the side that way they can get the ladders in.
Broken hydrant, low water
4:14 requesting TTF
M&M fully involved defensive attack only
Multiple homes involved
Downed power lines

What greeted firefighters was yet another ferocious set of homes–and in this case a long-standing Ashland business–on fire..

Around 3:40am, firefighters from Ashland and Girardville were called to 100 Centre Street for reports of a fire. Arriving units found heavy fire, and a third alarm was struck.

Firefighters from northern Schuylkill and southern Columbia and Luzerne Counties responded to the scene, and water issues prompted the response of a tanker task force.

The now all-too-common scene included initial passersby and Facebook reporters hopping from cars and posing themselves to get great views and video. Initials reports from the scene indicate that amateur fire chasers may have even got a bit too close for comfort that the fire chief had to admonish them..

This fire also appears to have hurt a firefighter, with one on the scene reportedly being taken away with a broken leg.

SKOOK NEWS was also on the scene and took incredible photos of the active fire in process including this horrific image: