This fire is considered suspicious at this time.
02:31 NCCC (Northumberland County Communications Center) dispatched a working structure fire in the area of 100 West Saylor street, Atlas. Upon arrival of MICU 93 the address was corrected to 108 West Saylor, Atlas.
Due to the advanced stage of the fire along with the property being vacant command decided to set a defensive approach on this incident, which turned out to be the best call as Side “C” collapsed shortly after arrival with the remainder of the structure pancaking as time went on.
Several additional structures suffered heat damage due to the intensity of the flames.
449 PPL customers lost power due to this incident after fire burned through power lines and a transformer exploding. Bell telephone land line were also severed due to the blaze.
This property was owned by Thea Tafner, the former ambulance director at American Hose in Mount Carmel who pleaded guilty to embezzling $3.7 million in Medicare payments and got off easy by serving only 26 months in federal prison for her debt while keeping her pension. Thea also was ordered to pay back $1.8 million.

A thermal video of this incident is available.