A former furniture factory is now a shell after a massive 6-alarm blaze burned through the commercial building in Allentown on Wednesday night.

Several homes across the street were also damaged by the fire.

The blaze broke out around 8:45 p.m. in the 300 block of North Front Street.

Chopper 6 video showed heavy flames engulfing the structure, which sustained significant damage. Portions of the roof and interior floors have collapsed.

Authorities urged residents on the 300 block of North Front Street to evacuate through the rear of their homes, since it was too dangerous out front. Residents in surrounding areas were advised to shelter in place until further notice.

No injuries have been reported.

“The biggest fire I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It was insane. It was hot — smoke everywhere,” said Shawn Sell. “I got text messages from friends 30 miles away, asking me if I was ok. And they saw the big plumes of smoke.”

The building was the former American Atelier furniture factory, which has since moved to another location.

WPVI-TV ABC 6 Philadelphia

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PHOTOS: A plane that went down in the Columbia River has caused a power outage in Kennewick and a brush fire in Pasco, and multiple emergency response officials responded to the scene. According to dispatch records, emergency responders were sent to the Columbia River near Clover Island at about 2:29 p.m. on June 24 for a reported aircraft crash. According to multiple eyewitnesses at the scene, a small airplane was flying low when it clipped power lines on the Pasco side of the river near the Cable Bridge. The collision caused the plane to flip over into the river.

The crash into the power lines caused power outages in both Pasco and Kennewick. Sparks from the damaged power lines also fell and caused a grass fire in Pasco’s Youth Baseball Complex. Multiple emergency response agencies responded to the scene to fight the fire and assist people involved in the plane crash. The plane itself was partially submerged in the river, and police and search and rescue boats circled the area searching for the plane.

The plane was recovered from the water at about 3:30 p.m. It had flipped upside down in the crash, and was recovered from the water by a crane. Franklin County Sheriff’s Office officials confirmed two men lost their lives in the plane crash. The Franklin County Coroner is working to identify the deceased and notify their families.

Responding agencies included Pasco Police Department, Pasco Fire Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Benton PUD and Franklin PUD.

Apple Valley News Now

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Three firefighters were injured Thursday when a house exploded shortly after crews arrived to battle a fire in Greenbank on Whidbey Island, according to Central Whidbey Island Fire & Rescue. The injured firefighters include two fire chiefs and one firefighter from Central Whidbey Island Fire & Rescue and South Whidbey Fire/EMS, the agency said. Their names were not immediately released. Two firefighters were taken to Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, while a third was transported to Island Hospital with blast injuries. All three were reported in stable condition.

Fire officials said two civilians may also have been injured but drove themselves to a hospital before they could be evaluated by emergency responders. The explosion occurred after crews responded to a reported house fire at about 2:45 p.m. on Smuggler’s Cove Road near Lagoon Point, according to Central Whidbey Island Fire & Rescue. Firefighters were injured shortly after arriving when the home exploded.

The blast and resulting fire destroyed the home where the explosion occurred, officials said. A neighboring home was also destroyed after catching fire, and a third home sustained damage from the explosion. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation by the Region 3 Arson Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

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A local boy is miraculously alive after a car crash sent him to the hospital on Monday night. Riggin Bliss, 17, was on his way home from his summer job when officials say an oncoming driver hit him head-on. Bliss is a volunteer firefighter with Cowlitz-Skamania Fire District 7. His own colleagues, including his brother and the fire chief, responded to the call to help him.

“I’ve got a duty to act. I have to help no matter what the situation is going on,” said Bliss’s brother Charlie Silvis, 19. Silvis, along with Fire Chief Nick Huesties, responded to the crash about a mile away from their station on Lewis River Road in Ariel, Washington. ‘It’s very hard when you get a call for a car crash and when you’re rolling up, you see a car that you recognize,” Huesties said.

The two fire officials found that Bliss was trapped in his red truck. “I just started freaking out,” Silvis said. “I tried to keep my composure.” Washington State Patrol says a vehicle driving north towards the interstate and crossed the center line and hit Bliss’s car heading south. Police say the driver, 76-year-old John Jessup, may have been impaired and has been charged with vehicular assault.

Huesties says he’s responded to many crashes on the road. “The chances of being in a car crash, if you live up here your whole life, is pretty high,” he said. Bliss is on the mend, although his recovery will be a long one. Huesties says he has a broken femur, tibia, hip and a bruised carotid and he also bruised his chest.

KOIN-TV CBS 6 Portland

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VIDEO: The Vincennes Fire Department has received a new set of wheels, or rather a restored set of wheels, as the department temporarily has a fully restored 1926 fire truck that the department used to own at their headquarters for people to see.

For one member of the fire department, Larry Howerton, a retired firefighter and the current chaplain for the department, seeing this restored truck means more as he used to see this same truck when he was on the department back in the 1960s.

“I slept in the same building with it for a few years and have operated it before,” Howerton said. “Not on a working fire, only to test the pump or test the hose in that capacity.”

Howerton was blown away when he saw the same truck he saw every day restored to its former glory.

“It’s a beautiful piece of equipment,” Howerton said. “It looks a whole lot different than it had when it left here many years ago.”

The wheels were set in motion on this project last year when Jeff Latta, training division chief for the Vincennes Fire Department, did some research on the history of the department and found this 100-year-old truck sitting in California.

WTWO-TV NBC 2 Terre Haute

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