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Firefighters recovering after blaze at former Pittsburgh German Hungarian social club

Tom Davidson
| Monday, October 5, 2020 2:05 p.m.
Tom Davidson | Tribune-Review
On Monday, firefighters at the scene of a Sunday fire at 38 Mount Oliver St. in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhood.

The four Pittsburgh firefighters who were injured when a burning building collapsed Sunday night in the South Side Slopes are recovering from their injuries, a public safety spokeswoman said.

Officials remain “in the early stages” of investigating what caused the fire at 38 Mount Oliver St. that also damaged two adjacent buildings, a spokeswoman said.

As firefighters worked on Monday to investigate what caused the fire, a fire investigator suffered an electric shock at about 11:40 a.m., spokesman Maurice Matthews said.

The investigator was shocked when he stepped on a downed power line, Matthews said. He was conscious and alert when he was taken to the hospital in stable condition, Matthews said.

Before Sunday’s fire, people had complained about the address. Police were investigating it as a “potential nuisance property,” Cruz said.

Until the Miller family sold the property in 2018, it was the clubhouse of the German Hungarian Singing Society, a now-defunct social club, Elaine (Miller) Bruno said.

There was a bar on the first floor and a small apartment upstairs, she said.

According to Allegheny County property records, in May 2018 the Millers sold the property to Cortez McClendon for $30,000. In December 2018, McClendon transferred the deed to Keithia Allen for $1.

The liquor license wasn’t part of the sale, Bruno said.

Neither McClendon nor Allen could be reached for comment Monday.

A gallon jug of cooking oil was atop a trash container outside the doorway to the building Monday, as a crew of firefighters and investigators worked to clean up and figure out what started the fire. Across Mount Oliver street, a milk crate filled with individually-packaged corn dogs and Oreo cookies was sitting on the sidewalk.

Michelle Gordesky’s father lived in an adjacent building and was displaced by the fire. He declined comment, but Michelle Gordesky said they had complained about what was known as the 38 Club for a few months.

“It was a nuisance club, a speakeasy,” she said.

The fire started at about 8 p.m. As firefighters battled heavy flames, the back of the building collapsed as the fire grew to four alarms.

One firefighter suffered a minor burn and one had a cut. Two more suffered shoulder injuries, officials said.

They were treated at the hospital but were recovering Monday.

The American Red Cross is helping the Gordeskys and the people who lived in another adjacent building that was damaged in the blaze, as city officials work to evaluate the structural damage to the buildings.


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