For the second time in a year, a passing vehicle has ripped down the fire escape alongside the brick building at 1590 West Market St. in Pottsville.
"This was just fixed within the last two months," city fire Chief Todd March said, surprised, referring to the fire escape.
"They're going to have to designate a better route to World Resources," Richard Bernardon, 33, of Allentown, New Jersey, the driver of the tractor-trailer that hit the fire escape Thursday afternoon, said. He added that the tractor-trailer was taking a load of filters to the business at 170 Walnut Lane in Pottsville.
Pottsville police are investigating and did not charge Bernardon on Thursday.
The incident was reported to the Schuylkill County Communications Center at 2:06 p.m. Thursday, according to a call taker at the communications center.
Bernardon, a driver for SJ Transportation, Woodstown, New Jersey, said he was given instructions from World Resources on how to enter the facility.
But Ken Riegel, senior vice president and general manager of World Resources, said Thursday that Bernardon deviated from the instructions given.
"The driver mentioned we provided instructions to go that route. We want to clarify that. The transporter is a long-term transporter we have utilized for many years. This is a new driver for that transporter and, also, we provide instructions to all the transporters of designated routes to take. And there's a designated route to take. And this particular driver deviated from that previous planned route. We have designated routes to come to our facility, none of which would ever go through the Pottsville area. They usually come through from Minersville and Seltzer City Road to our facility directly and no side streets," Riegel said.
Riegel said Bernardon was delivering filters used in the copper recycling process.
Bernardon said he was driving the tractor-trailer westbound on West Market Street when he made a right turn onto North 16th Street.
The passenger side, tail end of the trailer, which is 13 feet, 6 inches high and 53 feet long, snagged the fire escape attached to 1590 W. Market St., according to Bernardon.
Unable to back up for fear of hitting pedestrians or the building at 1590, Bernardon said he drove forward, completing the turn. In the process, the driver side front of the trailer brushed a utility pole.
The impact caused power lines to detach and catch on fire, according to March.
"There were live wires. There were two," March said.
The heat of the fire caused the black coating on the power lines to melt onto the street.
"See all that insulation that's laying there. That burned off," March said.
Workers for PPL Electric Utilities were on scene to repair the lines.
The building is owned by Luigi and Rosa Troia, Walden, New York, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator.
The Troias could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The scene was cleared by 2:34 p.m., according to the communications center call taker.
Pottsville police could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon regarding an update on the Oct. 3 accident. That day, city Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said the damage may have been caused by a tractor-trailer going on the narrow street, which isn't uncommon.