Firefighters

Four firefighters and a battalion chief were rushed to the hospital after they were shocked, likely by downed electrical wires, as they were fighting a three-alarm blaze in West Philadelphia early yesterday. Two of the injured were admitted for overnight treatment. The other three were treated and released, Executive Fire Chief Daniel Williams said. Authorities ruled out lightning as the cause and said they believed the shock was caused by live wires that had fallen during the fire and came in contact with a ladder truck.

Three people were rescued by firefighters after a car parked near their apartments caught fire, and then spread to their rooms in a converted barn in the 100 block of Rocksville Road. Melissa Somner, 29, was admitted to Saint Mary Hospital in Langhorne in stable condition after Thursday's 5:45 a.m. incident.James and Shanda Haltzeman, the two other people rescued, were not injured, police said. Police said it took firefighters from Northampton and Feasterville nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze.

A two-alarm fire damaged a second-floor showroom and roof housing Nate Ben's Reliable Appliances, Market Street near 21st, shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday. There were no injuries from the blaze, which was brought under control in 30 minutes. No customers were in the showroom, according to Fire Deputy Chief Matthew McCrory. He said firefighters from Engine 43, Ladder 9, housed next door to the fire, were notified of the blaze by a passer-by. Cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Cutting back on gas heat on a frigid Christmas weekend was a hardship for thousands, but considering what might have happened, Philadelphians owe a debt of gratitude to the city's firefighters and PGW's engineers. If the five-alarm fire set off by an explosion that rocked the Philadelphia Gas Works plant in South Philadelphia had spread - particularly to the adjacent PGW storage tank - the result could have been catastrophic. This was averted by coordination of efforts, know-how re-enforced by ongoing training (gas fires are different from others)

Ten Eastampton Township firefighters last night objected to a proposed township ordinance that would prohibit a fire siren from sounding from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. At a second public hearing on the ordinance, the firefighters argued that the pagers that would replace the siren are unreliable and need recharging and that a power failure could render them useless. The council also wants to move the fire siren to a less populated section of the township because of alleged excessive noise at the siren's current location, in a residential development.

Firefighters, local officials and a majority of taxpayers agree that a township of 70,000 needs one unified fire department, not six smaller ones. Sounds simple, right? The fly in the ointment is that not everyone agrees on how to do it. While members of the firefighting community pressed the council last night to consolidate the township's six districts into one, many council members endorsed an option unpopular with firefighters: a township-run department. "I don't think it's a bad idea, but I don't think it's the number-one way to go," said Tom Kolbe, who heads Cherry Hill's International Association of Firefighters Local 2663.

The Willingboro Volunteer Fire Company took a first tentative step toward mandatory drug testing yesterday, voting unanimously to have a committee draft a bylaw that would require it. Fire company president George Richardson said the committee was expected to work out the testing procedure and address concerns raised by firefighters that the tests could unfairly label innocents as drug users. The 100-member company is expected to vote in December on adopting the bylaw. "We've been aware for about a year that some of our members are involved with illegal and dangerous substances," Richardson said.

It was supposed to be in the bag for the incumbent. At the very worst, a squeaker for the challenger. But Les Yost pulled off a major upset yesterday by defeating City Fire Fighters Association president John McMenamin by a 4-to-1 ratio. Yost, a 27-year veteran of the Fire Department, including the last six as a union vice president, polled 2,096 votes to McMenamin's 565. "We won because I think I'm concerned about the main issues that the men have concerns about, the manpower, the pensions, the things I campaigned about," said Yost, who will be sworn in as head of Local 22 in July.

Two Pennsauken firefighters who pulled a couple from their burning house in March were honored last night by the Township Committee. John Schenberger Jr., 21, and William Alessi, 37, received plaques commemorating their acts of heroism. On March 22, the two men climbed through a second-story window of a smoke- filled building in Merchantville to reach the victims, both of whom were unconscious. Beverly Gambrill, 73, died April 16 as a result of injuries sustained in the fire.