Crime & Safety

'It Hurt That We Couldn't Help Them:' Emmaus Firefighter

A 24-year-old first responder recalls the duplex fire that killed four in Emmaus and the firefighters' all-out efforts to save them.

A little TV time and a better-than-average hoagie were the only things that distinguished the beginning of Kasey Beck’s Sunday shift at the Emmaus Fire Department on March 17.

The two other firefighters on duty, Donnie Riley III and Dave Ernst, helped pass the time in the crew room.

Assistant Capt. Gabe McNabb was there to finish some paperwork.

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Beck’s girlfriend, Dominique, brought the hoagie from Wegmans for lunch, and at 11:53 a.m., as Beck was finishing it, the call came in.

Reported as an apartment building fire at 36 S. 5th St., the four rushed out to get their gear. They jumped into Engine 711 and as soon as they left the fire station McNabb saw the smoke and immediately called a second alarm.

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Entrapment was broadcast, but the most foreboding words they heard broadcast from the Communications Center were that the police were telling them to expedite.

Get there.

Faster.

Two minutes later, they were the first truck to arrive.

Chaos.

Flames shot out of every opening on the front of the house, the windows, the door. The porch was completely engulfed.

Riley and Ernst grabbed a hose and started trying to beat back the flames that licked the front.

Directed by neighbors yelling there was somebody trapped on the second floor, McNabb and Beck grabbed a ladder and headed for the back porch roof. Once up to a back window, Beck’s glove-covered hand punched through the glass.

Thick black smoke—the indicator of high heat and lots of fire—poured out.

He felt around since many times people are found near windows and doors as they try to escape a fire.

Nothing.

He climbed in knowing that what he also had done when he broke the window was to feed the fire a fresh supply of oxygen.

He looked around as quickly and as thoroughly as possible and still saw nobody.

Even through thick gloves, anything Beck touched burned his hands.

And then, fed by the oxygen from the window, everything in the room reached its combustion point—a flashover. Flames bolted in his direction as everything in the room ignited.

He dove out the window, “As best I could with 50 pounds of gear on my back,” he said, and crawled the rest of the way, narrowly escaping the fire bolt.

Once the fire was pushed back a bit, they went back in, still looking for people, but when flames in the ceiling became even more intense, officials outside sounded the evacuation tones. All firefighters left the building until more of the flames could be knocked down.

Time had no meaning. Beck has no idea how long he was in there looking for people.

But he knew his air cylinder was low, and that he was exhausted. He had his pulse and heart rate checked—standard practice at such an incident—and met up with the other first responders away from the fire line.

They were angry, they were upset that there were still people in the house. 

“It hurt that we couldn’t help them. We broke down,” Beck said.

By the end of the day, four bodies were found: Melissa Twining, 48, her son, Montana Twining, 16, David Jenkins, Jr., 65, and Lena Marie Adamo, 56.

“I was never at a fatal fire before,” Beck, 24, said.

He fought the rest of the day. Returned to the firehouse around 9 p.m., went on another fire call—an automatic alarm—and then home around 10 p.m.

It was good to go back to his job as an auto mechanic on Monday, the Center Valley resident said, but he was mostly silent. Didn’t volunteer any information, was grateful there was something to take his mind off Sunday.

Tuesday night the Eastern PA Regional Critical Incident Stress Management Team talked with the guys at the fire station. It was good, Beck said, to be together, to talk. He takes comfort in their collective strength. And there’s something he wants people in Emmaus to know:

“We tried,” his voice ever-so-slightly cracking, “We did our best.”

Related Stories:

  • Fatal Fire on Fifth Street in Emmaus
  • Fatal Fire: How to Help Emmaus Victims
  • Fatal Fire Victim: 'She Was His World'
  • Fatal Fire: 5 East Penn Students Homeless
  • Fatal Fire: 4 Victims Identified By Coroner
  • Fatal Fire: East Penn Mourns Death of Student
  • Funeral Fund Set Up for Emmaus Fire Victims
  • Fire Victims Funeral Fund Accepting Donations Until April 15


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