Cause of Hazleton fire remains unknown

Feb. 26--The cause of a fire that raced through a former parochial school converted into an indoor youth sports facility in Hazleton on Monday night is still unknown.

Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Jones said the cause has been listed undetermined pending further investigation that involves the state police fire marshal, Hazleton police and Hazleton Fire Department.

Jones encouraged anyone with information on the fire at Wyoming and Springs streets, or who may have seen something suspicious to contact police at 570-459-4940 or through 911.

Damage to the building, Jones said, was moderate though there are no cost estimates to repair it yet.

While the first floor sustained fire, smoke and water damages, especially in the rear of the building where a stage is, the second floor sustained only smoke damage, he said.

Dan Cunningham, Hazleton, who rents the building for his business, Hazleton Sports Academy Fusion, Jones said, reported items, including a cash box, missing from inside.

Two firefighters sought medical treatment while fighting the fire and were treated or evaluated and then released from Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.

One was treated after falling about three feet through the raised stage to the ground floor due to instability incurred during the fire and another was treated for a medical condition, Jones said.

Firefighters from Hazleton and West Hazleton were dispatched to smoke pouring from the building around 7:45 p.m. Fire police shut down the vicinity near the fire, Jones said.

About six months ago, Cunningham opened Hazleton Sports Academy Fusion in the first floor he rents from building owner, Wilton Rodriguez, New York.

Both men were at the building waiting outside while investigators sifted through the charred inside searching for the source of the fire Tuesday morning.

Seven years ago Rodriguez said he purchased the property when the realty market was prime for buying and though he was alerted to the fire Monday night, he didn't expect the fire to be so large.

Not having been inside yet, Rodriguez judged the damages by looking at the interior of the building from a broken glass window on Spring Street looking south and believed the building was repairable. He said the building is uninsured though Cunningham has insurance for his business.

Prior to Rodriguez purchasing the building, it was used as a school up until it closed in 2001 and then sat vacant.

In 1930, St. John's Byzantine Catholic Church, Hazleton, decided at its yearly meeting that it would build a parish school on property the church owned on North Wyoming Street, according to published newspaper reports in the 1970s.

It was designed by "P. Sheridan," according to the article and built by Stecker and Pavarnik, a local firm, for $120,000. Construction was initially delayed until the Lehigh Valley Coal Co., extracted a coal deposit from the site.

Despite the delay and challenges during the Great Depression era, the school opened in September 1932 after being blessed July 4, 1932, by Bishop Basil Takach.

Sisters from the order of St. Basil the Great were brought to the school to work and remained there in a nearby convent also built by the parish.

Due to financial difficulties the school closed in 2001 at the end of the school year, according to previously published stories. It was the only Byzantine Catholic school in the Hazleton area at the time and only one of two Byzantine elementary schools in the county.

achristman@standardspeaker.com

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