Warehouse burns in Bern Township

On October 22 shortly after 9p.m. Mt. Penn was special called as the 5th due RIT company to assist Greenfields (Co55) with a 2 alarm structure fire at 1947 Bernville Rd-Evans Food Distributors in Bern Township. This call was originally dispatched as an Automatic Fire Alarm(AFA) shortly before 7:30p.m. and when the first crews arrived they found smoke showing from 2 sides of the building and immediately called for the structure assignment which brought help from the City of Reading and several suburban departments. As entry was gained, high heat and heavy smoke were present but the fire couldn’t be located in this cinder block and cement building until ventilation was accomplished. Crews made entry and were evacuated several times during this fire which eventually went to 3 alarms before being brought under control and extinguished. Due to the labor intensive efforts required Mt. Penn RIT was released to assist Western Berks(Co18) with ventilation and extinguishment on side D. Several firefighters were taken to the hospital for treatment during this fire. Mt. Penn was released shortly after 1a.m. The exact cause of this fire remains under investigation by the Fire Marshal as well as law enforcement.