General Alarm Fire Downtown Lancaster (PA)

 A general alarm fire in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania, destroyed the Zap and Company vintage store and left its owner, Steve Murray, in critical condition in the burn unit at Crozer Chester Medical Center. The fire began shortly before 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 20th and was fought by all available city crews as well as volunteers from surrounding townships. The entire store was gutted, but the fire did not spread to adjacent attached buildings.   

Lancaster City firefighters attacked the rear warehouse of the burning Zap and Company store. The fire spread through the store and reached the back two story section and was fought by numerous aerial and ground master streams.   Lancaster City firefighters used a portable monitor to protect exposures on the south side of the building. “The cause of the fire is undetermined,” Lancaster City Fire Capt. David Amico told LancasterOnline.com. “It’s too unsafe to investigate.” He estimated the damage cost would be over $250,000 for the building and the two-story warehouse which was part of the building was “stacked and stored with as much stuff as you can imagine.”

• Read more from LancasterOnline.com and see pictures here.
• WGAL has a viewer-submitted photo gallery of the fire. You can see that here.