By Margaret Harding
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PENN HILLS, Pa. — About 500 members of a century-old Verona social club need to find another place to meet, drink and provide a hall for wedding receptions.
A fire that was reported about 4 a.m. Wednesday destroyed the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge No. 250 on East Railroad Street and threatened residents of two nearby apartment buildings.
One firefighter suffered a minor injury. Several firefighters were ordered out of the building shortly before the partial collapse of a ceiling and walls.
Another firefighter escaped injury when a power line fell on his ladder.
Joe McMeekin, assistant chief of Penn Hills Volunteer Fire Department No. 225, said he was pouring water into the building when he heard a wire arcing.
“It was the ‘bzzt, bzzt,’” McMeekin said. “It fell right above my head. I didn’t want to look. I just started making my way down the ladder.”
McMeekin’s father, also a firefighter, met him halfway up the ladder to make sure he was OK. The two climbed down together and continued fighting the fire.
“It was just one of them freak things,” McMeekin said. “Everybody’s OK, and we go back to doing it again.”
The fire tore through the lodge and spread to an adjacent apartment building, where everyone was safely evacuated, Verona fire Chief Ray Suchevich said.
Authorities have not said what caused the blaze.
Medics took one firefighter to UPMC St. Margaret with a possibly separated shoulder, Suchevich said. The lodge was fully involved when firefighters arrived, and they could not enter the building, he said.
“We went to a defensive attack and just started surrounding and drowning (the flames),” he said.
Bricks from the front of the building crumbled to the sidewalk below. A demolition crew arrived to begin demolishing the building, which, according to club recorder Shirley Fazio, had been in the community for more than 100 years.
“It was an intense fire,” Suchevich said. “It was growing too much, too fast.”
The club was open on Tuesday and closed as usual about midnight, said bar manager Clem Daube.
Daube and trustee Pat McCarthy stood in front of the building and watched the firefighters work. The weddings, parties and showers the lodge planned to host will be canceled, they said.
“It is what it is, and nobody got hurt,” McCarthy said. “That’s why there’s insurance. The firefighters did what they could.”
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