Apartment Building, Residential Easton, PA – Sprinkler system holds apartment fire in check; Fire started in dryer April 10, 2016 viking210 A dryer fire Wednesday evening in Easton led to extensive damage in an apartment and the temporary evacuation of the entire building. It was reported about 5:50 p.m. in an apartment at G.J. Mills in the 1400 block of Bushkill Drive in the city, near the border with Forks Township. Tenant Fred Green said he was doing laundry in his apartment when the dryer, stacked atop the washer, caught fire. “Underneath the bottom of the dryer, I saw flames and the filter was melting,” he said. He dialed 911 and the building’s alarm sounded. The Easton Fire Department had the fire quickly extinguished upon arrival, Capt. Henry Hennings said. “The sprinkler system kept things pretty much in check until we got here,” he said. “A lot of water damage, though.” Hennings confirmed the fire started in the dryer but said the cause was undetermined Wednesday night. Residents temporarily evacuated by the incident clustered together at the apartments inside a converted mill complex along the Bushkill Creek. Despite the alarm sounding, firefighters had to go door to door in the complex to evacuate all the residents as a precaution, Hennings said. He noted that if an alarm sounds in a building, anyone inside needs to get out. Older construction can mean buildings lack firewalls, and flames can spread to any void from the basement to the attic. No one was reported injured. Green’s second-floor apartment sustained flame, heat and smoke damage, and firefighters reported some smoke in at least four other apartments. Only Green was displaced following the incident, Hennings said, and was being put up temporarily by the property owner, Strausser Enterprises Inc. The fire department cleared the scene about 7:20 p.m.
