Three Firefighters Die as Blaze Sweeps Philadelphia Building

A high-rise inferno that burned for almost 19 hours was brought under control Sunday after killing three firefighters and gutting nine floors of a 38-story skyscraper.

The 12-alarm blaze raged from 8:30 p.m. Saturday until 3 p.m. Sunday, when it reached a floor with automatic sprinklers and firefighters were able to direct water into windows, Fire Commissioner Roger M. Ulshafer said.

Hours earlier, fire crews stopped fighting the blaze from inside the building after engineers warned that the charred and soot-covered high-rise could collapse.

The city’s main downtown intersection, the traffic circle where Philadelphia’s two major arteries loop around City Hall, was closed.

At least 12 firefighters were injured. Two were hospitalized in stable condition. The firefighters who were killed apparently became disoriented in heavy smoke and ran out of oxygen from their tanks, Ulshafer said.

The fire at One Meridian Plaza started on the 22nd floor and spread to the 30th floor, where sprinklers kicked in. There were no sprinklers on the 22nd through the 29th floors, Ulshafer said. The battle was complicated by failures in the building’s electrical system, backup generators and water pumping system, he said.

During the late morning, flames were visible from the 27th through the 29th floors as firefighters sprayed three jets of water from a nearby office tower. All or portions of the 22nd through the 30th floors were gutted.

The building houses the Philadelphia regional headquarters of Reading, Pa.-based Meridian Bancorp Inc. and other offices.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.