Fire ravages local apartment house

One person was hurt in the three-alarm blaze. One person was injured yesterday afternoon in a three-alarm fire in an apartment building at 43rd and Spruce streets, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston said. As of late last night, the city Fire Marshall's office was still investigating the incident and had not yet determined the cause of the blaze. Firefighters evacuated approximately 30 people from the three-story, 40-unit Spruce Hill apartment building at 4317 Spruce Street. Evacuees were housed in a temporary American Red Cross shelter in the Penn Children's Center at 42nd and Spruce streets, said Rocco Perry, who coordinated the Red Cross's efforts at the scene. Hairston said the fire began at approximately 1:53 p.m., with the second and third alarms following at 2:02 p.m. and 2:20 p.m., respectively. The blaze was under control by 3:20 p.m., he said, adding that nearly a dozen people had telephoned 911 alerting the department to the fire. A 69-year-old woman was transported to Misericordia Hospital at 53rd Street and Cedar Avenue for smoke inhalation, fire officials said. Hairston said yesterday afternoon that the fire apparently started in a utility closet on the building's second floor before spreading to third-floor apartments. "Some of these people are going to be displaced for a good while," he said. Building resident Jeff Jackson, who lives in a first-floor apartment, said he was "totally convinced" that the fire was an arson, explaining that there have been numerous disturbances and other incidents -- such as the building's front doors being kicked open -- at the location within the past two months. Jackson, a maintenance mechanic who has lived in the building for 12 years, said he lost all his possessions -- including wedding photographs, furniture, jewelry, a television, a VCR and cash -- in the fire. Perry said the Penn Children's Center was housing approximately 40 displaced residents yesterday afternoon, and a spokesman for the American Red Cross later told KYW-TV that a school at 47th and Spruce streets would soon replace the center as a shelter. "Right now, we're just making sure people are safe [and] comfortable," Perry said. The Fire Marshall's office is currently investigating the fire, which occurred just beyond the limits of University Police jurisdiction at 43rd Street. The Philadelphia Police Department's Southwest Detectives Bureau will investigate the incident if the fire is ruled to be an arson. This fire comes less than three months after a mid-December blaze that caused one death and five injuries at an apartment building on 44th and Pine streets. Hairston told news organizations at the time that the fatality occurred when a woman died after attempting to jump to safety from her window.