Hoopie World: Commercial Structure Fire

Commercial Structure Fire - Sagamore Borough (8/24/05)

At approximately 1:20am on August 24th, Armstrong County 911 received reports of a fire on the third floor of the landmark Sagamore Hotel on Route 210 in the Village of Sagamore. Rural Valley Station 210 and Plumville Station 350 (Indiana County) were dispatched. The first arriving units found heavy smoke and fire on the third floor and resquested full company responses from Elderton Station 50 and Dayton Station 30 as well as aerials from Indiana Station 100 (Indiana County) and Kittanning Station 130 (both of which were about 20 miles away).

The fire quickly spread throughout the 102-year-old structure. Soon the entire first and second floors were completely involved in fire. Low hydrant pressure forced command to call in tankers from three counties to shuttle water from nearby Keystone Lake. Responding takers came from Kittanning Township Station 310, Rayburn Township Station 260, Marion Center Station 190 (Indiana County) , Creeekside Station 260 (Indiana County), Clymer Station 150 (Indiana County), Perry Township Station 12 (Jefferson County). Kittanning’s Tower set up and was supplied by tanker shuttle while crews from Indiana and Clymer laid 2500 ft of 5in line to supply Indiana Snorkel 109.

Engines from Elderton, Dayton, Plumville, and Rural Valley were supplying multiple deluge guns and hand lines which were quickly draining the township reservoir. A call was made to activate an additional 17 tankers from Indiana County, some coming from over 30 miles away. As soon as the tankers started arriving it was realized that there was not enough dump sites so the majority dropped one load and were released. Operations continued until about 6:00 am.

No injuries were reported to any resident or firefighters. The building was a total loss and the State Police Fire Marshal is investigating.