Electrical Fire at Susquehanna Bank Contained

As employees opened for business on Tuesday morning, it became apparent that something was not right.

Original reports to emergency responders indicated that soot was visible on the walls of the interior of the bank, located on N. Lewis Road in Limerick. There was also a large amount of smoke inside the building. Employees evacuated and awaited assistance.

"It appeared to be a heater fire over night to a small electrical heater in the wall," said Linfield Fire Chief Don Maleta. "It was out before we got here. It was just contained to the heating unit itself. The breakers blew on the heater and everyone got out safely. I noticed a heavy odor when we got in. We got here and it smelled like an electrical fire. Sure enough, it was an electrical fire."

Maleta said the unit had a thermostat on it that may have been triggered with Monday night's cool temperatures. The heating unit was located on the back wall of the bank near the drive-thru area.

"I can't tell you what happened without sending it to an investigator," said Maleta. "They'll have to turn it over to their insurance company."

Most alarming is the fact that the bank does not have smoke detectors, according to Maleta. He said had the breakers not blown, the unit could have caused a bad occurrence.

"The fact that the circuit breaker blew for the heater was the only thing that kept this fire from being a total loss, as nothing would have triggered a call to the fire department in the middle of the night other than a passer by," Maleta said.

On scene to investigate and clean up were , and . The call was made shortly before 8 a.m. and was cleaned up by about 8:20 a.m.