Working Structure Fire The Blakeslee Diner 5716 Rt 115 Blakeslee
08:00 am
Working Structure Fire The Blakeslee Diner 5716 Rt 115 Blakeslee (right next to the Tobyhanna Fire Co building on Rt 115), reported as the rear of the building.
UPDATE 08:20 am: All responding units are to stage at the Farmers Market (Old Jamesway).
UPDATE 08:25 am: Fire Marshal Notified.
UPDATE 08:35 am: Tanker fill site setup at Camelot next to the pipeline
Tobyhanna Fire, Tunkhannock Fire, Coolbaugh Township Fire, Pocono Summit Fire, Penn Forest Fire, West End Volunteer Fire Co, Barrett Township Fire, Blue Ridge Hook and Ladder, Pocono Mt Regional Ambulance, Thornhurst EMS Responding.
If anyone is in the area and can safely take photos, please share them.
The story and photos below are from the Pocono Record.
Residents evacuated in Blakeslee Diner fire
By
Above the Blakeslee Diner are 13 rental rooms and the residents share a bathroom.
During breakfast Friday morning at the downstairs restaurant, a tenant called to say there was a fire upstairs, waitress Patricia Mahoney said.
She and Tony Nunez, a co-owner of the restaurant, went upstairs and knocked on doors to get tenants out, she said.
The other co-owner, Francisco Fernandez, was cooking in the restaurant. By the time he got outside all tenants were evacuated or accounted for — 10 people live upstairs.
The co-owners, who have had the restaurant since 2002, stay in the rooms upstairs for days at a time when they are working, and then join their families in their homes on their days off.
Nunez was visibly upset about the fire but said the main thing was that no lives were lost.
Fernandez, a father of five, says he is worried about how he will pay his bills. The restaurant slows down after the summer season and he usually gets a second job to help support his family, he said.
"Now it's going to be different and," Hernandez said, looking at the damage. "I have a family to support. I can work 24 hours a day. "
The Tobyhanna Township volunteer fire company is next door to the diner on Route 115. The call for the fire came in at 7:58 a.m., Tobyhanna fire chief Troy Counterman said.
Flames covered the exterior wall in the back of the restaurant when firefighters arrived. Also responding to the fire were fire companies from Tunkhannock, Coolbaugh, the West End, Pocono Summit, Barrett, Albrightsville, Penn Forest, and Blue Ridge Hook and Ladder.
The cause of the fire has not been determined. A Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal investigator was on scene, investigating the cause.
The restaurant, on the bottom floor, has smoke and water damage, but no fire damage.
Fernandez said they hope to open the diner again.
