Intense Fire Melts Windows in Kingsessing Row Homes

NBC10 Investigator Harry Hairston sent in some great cell phone video from viewer Khalil McDonald

Take a look at the cell phone video NBC10 Investigator Harry Hairston sent in this afternoon from the massive Kingsessing fire that damaged several row homes overnight.

The video was shot by Khalil McDonald. He lives right near the abandoned garage at 53rd and Pentridge Streets where the fire started late Tuesday night.

McDonald told Hairston he was in his house, saw the flames, grabbed his cell phone and charger, and a change of clothes. McDonald said he ran out of the house and started filming.

The fire was so intense it melted the windows in his home and singed the back of his house, he told Hairston. Other neighbors tell similar stories:

"Most of the damage is in the back of my house," Joyce Haley told NBC10's Tim Furlong. "My side melted and the back of my house up near my bay window."

The fire went to three alarms and moved quickly. The fire department evacuated the row homes surrounding the burning building. That displaced quite a few families. 28 people took the Red Cross up on their offer for shelter at the Ann H. Shaw Middle School on Warrington Avenue.

Some folks have returned to their homes, but not all. Crews were on the scene Wednesday afternoon checking hot spots.

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