Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney, right, and city Fire Inspector Francis Evanko talk about house fire statistics recently prior to an interview with the Times Leader and Eyewitness News WBRE/WYOU.
Roger DuPuis | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — An estimated 358,500 home fires occur every year according to the National Fire Protection Association. Locally, when fires start in older homes flames rip through them quickly, but why?
Eyewitness News teamed up with the Times Leader to find out. We spoke with fire officials in the Diamond City, where they shed light on several common causes — and factors that fuel the flames once they start.
“Fires burn far hotter and far faster than they ever have before,” said Wilkes-Barre City Fire Chief Jay Delaney.
The Wilkes-Barre City Fire Department responded to 148 fires in 2022, just one less fire than the previous year. So far in 2023, Eyewitness News and the Times Leader have been on the scene of multiple house fires in the Diamond City, capturing firefighters in the thick of smoke and dousing flames erupting from homes.
Once the flames are out, the investigation into what caused the fire begins.
Wilkes-Barre City Fire Inspector Francis Evanko has been a firefighter for 25 years and fire inspector for the city for the last four.
He says the majority of fires in the city are unintentional.
“The biggest cause of house fires is cooking, that’s almost 50 percent of them,” added Evanko.
Those of us who spend our working hours listening to fire calls on the scanner know the terminology all too well: “culinary incident,” if the person on the radio is being formal, or more commonly “kitchen fire.”
And we hear them frequently.
As Evanko says, they’re also highly preventable, with many kitchen fires caused by people leaving food unattended while it’s cooking.
“It’s people walking away when you have something on the stove, when you have stuff in a microwave,” he said.
Popcorn is a common culprit, as it’s oil-based and quick to burn — as are many such foods.
“We get a lot of oil fires,” Evanko said. “The big thing with oil is to cover it, not to throw water on it.”
Throwing water on an oil fire can cause it to flare up like an explosion, injuring anyone nearby and spreading the flames, he explained.
Aging, faulty wiring
Evanko also says heating, electricity, and aging or faulty wiring throughout older homes are substantial causes.
“The coatings on the wire fail, especially in some of the metal coated stuff, they short out, and it’s as simple as a squirrel stepping on it or you are throwing something in your attic,” explained Evanko.
Plus the older the house the fewer the receptacles and the more power is drawn.
“What they used to have, was knob-and-tube and was itself alone in the framework of the house,” continued Evanko.
Modern home buyers often find that existing knob-and-tube systems lack the capacity for today’s level of power use. Talk to a licensed electrician if you think this wiring system is in your home.
The role of balloon-frame construction
Whether your home is old or new the causes of fires are the same. But how firefighters put out a fire at older homes is much different than newer ones.
“Most veteran firefighters in the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department understand if they go to a basement fire, the next hose line they might need is up in the attic,” says Chief Delaney.
That’s due to the balloon-frame construction of many older homes.
As the website www.firerescue1.com explains it:
“Balloon-frame, which was built from the early 19th century until World War II, poses unique firefighting problems because it lacks horizontal fire stops between the studs inside of the exterior walls,” the site states.
Fire stops between the studs inside of the exterior walls arrest the spread of smoke, flame, and gas, from one concealed space to another. Without them, blazes spread quickly.
“Most balloon-frame homes are two or three stories tall. This allows for unimpeded fire spread from the basement to the attic in a matter of minutes via the interior stud channels of the exterior walls,” the site states.
That’s something Delaney knows all too well.
“There’s no way to stop the combustive products and the fire to sometimes run right up into the attic,” added Chief Delaney. “Most homes built around World War II or … that time frame were built differently than they are built today. A lot of our older housing stock in Northeastern Pennsylvania are houses like this.”
To give you a rough idea of how prevalent the style is here, a recent study conducted by The Institute for Public Policy & Economic Development at Wilkes University found that the region’s housing stock is older compared with the Commonwealth as a whole and the United States — and much of it is from the balloon-frame era.
Nearly four in 10 homes built in Lackawanna County were built before 1940, that report found, and this share is only slightly lower in Luzerne County, at 36%. Another 42% of homes in Luzerne County were built in the 1970s and earlier.
Nearly half of the region’s housing was built prior to 1950, compared to just over a third statewide and less than a fifth nationwide.
According to a report by the City of Wilkes-Barre, citing the 2011-2015 American Community Survey, 55.6% housing stock in the City of Wilkes-Barre was built prior to 1939. In Pittston, 64.18% of housing was built before 1939. And those figures are similar for communities up and down the Wyoming Valley.
New construction is mandated to have the fire stops, but many older homes lack them.
“It’s hard to retrofit an old house to do that but there are ways it can be done,” said Chief Delaney.
Get a licensed contractor
But this is not a do-it-yourself project, get a consultation with a licensed contractor.
Checking out new construction in Luzerne County, flameproof insulation is put into the walls. Any area where there’s a draft or opening around wires will be filled before it can pass an inspection.
There are plenty of pros to having a newer home, but it’s important to remember no home is fireproof.
“The products of combustion, the contents of a house, chairs, couches, mattresses,” says Chief Delaney. “In terms of fighting a fire today, fire is far hotter and travels much quicker and faster than it did 30 to 40 years ago.”
Remember to make sure there are working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in your home. If you don’t have a working smoke detector check with your local fire department for one.