By Brett R. Crossley
TURBOTVILLE — A mid-morning blaze behind the Original Italian Pizza restaurant at 37 Main St. destroyed two apartments owned by the pizza shop’s owner, Filippo Cracchiolo.
The fire was noticed at 11:15 a.m. by a neighbor who was working in his backyard. The neighbor alerted Cracchiolo to the fire and ran to his house to call the fire department. Cracchiolo ran out of his shop and into the upstairs apartment, where he rescued a tenant’s cat and dog.
“A guy across the street called 911,” Cracchiolo said. “I went out back and saw smoke coming out of the back door.”
The neighbor, who would not identify himself, said he could smell smoke coming from the apartment.
He said he thought someone was burning trash, but when he got to his front yard, he could see smoke coming out of the window of the second-floor apartment.
Information about the tenants was unavailable Thursday.
Another group of neighbors said that when Turbotville firefighters arrived, hydrants could not provide enough water, and the firefighters were forced to wait for tanker trucks.
“They had to bring water trucks in,” one of the neighbors said. “The place just burned.”
Witnesses said six different tanker trucks were at the scene to assist. Calls to the fire company went unanswered.
A state fire marshal is scheduled to investigate today.
