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CNN Live Sunday

At Least Four Perish In Fire Caused by Allison

Aired June 17, 2001 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Remnants of tropical storm Allison played a major role in the disaster, with rain hammering sections of the northeast. As much as nine inches of rain fell overnight, swelling at least one waterway to nearly double the flood stage. The downpour has left thousands without power and forced the evacuation of hundreds.

For a live update from Horsham, Pennsylvania, CNN's Jason Carroll is joining us by phone -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donna, I'm standing in front of the Village Green apartment complex; I can see the burnt-out front of one of the buildings. Crews right now are trying to stabilize the structure, so the search can continue. As you said, they have found four bodies at this point; three people are still missing. Firefighters cannot recover those bodies until the building is shored up.

Earlier today, I spoke with some of the people who lived in the complex. One woman, Victoria Domiko, 75 years old, told me how scared she was last night when the floodwaters rows to the first floor. She said she smelled gasoline, and then there was some sort of an explosion in one of the buildings. The fire then spread to two other buildings in the complex.

At this point, fire officials have not given us a cause, but they told me they do believe the flooding had something to do with the fire.

As you know, sections of southeastern Pennsylvania were hit very hard with what could be the last blow from Allison. That was last night. The storm triggered power outages and flash floods throughout the area. It all happened so quickly, people were trapped in their cars in major exits on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, had to be closed.

Today, residents, as you can imagine Donna, are cleaning up after everything that happened. Most who went to shelters last night are now back home or heading back home. There were dozens of people obviously from the Village Green apartment complex who now no longer have a home, and the Red Cross is here to try to help those people relocate -- Donna.

KELLEY: Jason, I don't know if you are able to find this out yet, but we heard they had to stop the search for a time, because the building was unstable. Do you know if they've been able to stabilize that, so they can continue to search for those missing folks?

CARROLL: What's happening now, Donna, is they are in the process of trying to shore up the building and make it safe enough for fire crews to make it back in there to recover the four bodies and continue the search for the three others, who are still missing. But again, that's going to take a lot of time; a lot of damage was done out here, and it will take some time before firefighters are able to get back inside.

KELLEY: OK, Jason Carroll there in Horsham, Pennsylvania, thanks for the information you were able to get.

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