Pittsburgh-area house with 20,000 rounds of ammo inside catches fire
A fire ripped apart a home in Westmoreland County on Friday morning, igniting thousands of bullets inside.
Shots rang out as flames poured out of the home in Vandergrift. It was the sounds of the 20,000 rounds of ammo stored inside.
"It was constant pops," next-door neighbor Don Cocco said.
It was around 8 a.m. when Cocco smelled smoke and heard his neighbors screaming that the house next to his on Emerson Street was on fire.
"When I came out, I seen all of the smoke in the eaves," Cocco said.
They began to panic and banged on the front door of the home, thinking the woman who lived there was inside. Cocco said it wasn't long before she pulled up to the home as flames shot out of the side air conditioner.
"The flames were pretty high, and I was scared for my house," Cocco said.
Shortly after fire crews arrived, the ammo started to take off.
"It was very scary because nobody knew where they were going," Cocco said.
Vandergrift #1 Fire Chief Randy Dunmire said he quickly pulled their crews out of the building.
"It's just kind of flying around some. It doesn't have a lot of velocity to it because it's not coming out of a barrel, but it still has enough from the powder," Dunmire said.
Fire crews attacked the blaze from the outside for about 30 minutes until they knew all the ammo had exploded. The bullets traveled far, with some shell casings found about a half a block away.
"We decided if we didn't hear any for 10 minutes, then it was OK to go in," Dunmire said.
After knocking the fire down, crews did a lot of manual work, tackling fire in the walls and ceilings. In the process, they rotated crews due to the heat.
"It was a dangerous situation for quite some time," Dunmire said.
Dunmire said they saved some rifles and handguns, but many were destroyed. He called the house a total loss. They're in contact with the state fire marshal. Dunmire said he's not ruling on a cause, though he believes it was accidental.
Cocco is just grateful everyone is OK.
"I give all of the credit in the world to the fire departments. Unbelievable job they did," Cocco said.
