Cranberry Twp. log cabin blaze a challenge for responders
Conditions were stacked against firefighters at the scene Saturday night in Cranberry Township when a log cabin that was heated by oil topped with a metal roof caught fire in a wooded area on Goehring Road.
Michael Hanks, division chief of Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company, said the cabin was ablaze when police and then firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after 11:30 p.m.
The circumstances of the cabin and the fire made it immediately difficult to even fight, Hanks said, and firefighters took a defensive approach to contain it.
“When I pulled on scene, the amount of fire was absolutely incredible,” Hanks said. “With the amount of fire, there was a lot of water used to fight it, and we had quite a few obstacles with it being a collapsing structure.”
According to Hanks, no one was in the cabin during the fire, and Cranberry Township police contacted its owner, who was out of state. Additionally, no firefighters were severely injured in the fight, in part because the fire was too intense for responders to get close to.
Hanks also said the state police fire marshal will investigate the cause of the fire, so no cause has been determined yet.
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