Investigation Into Levittown Lanes Fire Underway

The investigation into what caused local staple Levittown Lanes to be destroyed by fire was underway as of Wednesday afternoon.

As firefighters continued to battle flames at the New Falls Road business in Falls Township’s Levittown section, longtime township Fire Marshal Rich Dippolito was already looking to determine the cause of the massive morning blaze.

Falls Township police were assisting the fire marshal, along with the Bristol Township Fire Marshal’s Office, Bucks County Fire Marshal’s Office, the Philadelphia Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Dippolito said the federal investigators were called out due to the high-dollar value of the loss and because they have additional resources the township agency doesn’t possess.

The township fire marshal said it was too early to determine a cause.

On Thursday, investigators plan to bring in heavy equipment to start pulling out debris so they can get inside to investigate, Dippolito said.

No one was in the building at the time of the fire.

No injuries were reported by crews battling the flames.

The fire was reported at 5:09 a.m. and appeared to have started in the rear of the portion of the building. It quickly spread throughout and massive flames shot from the bowed roof of the bowling alley, bar, and pizza shop within minutes of the first crews arriving, officials said.

PHOTOS: Levittown Lanes Burns In Blaze

Dispatch audio from the Philly FireFeed YouTube page revealed there were multiple calls of a fire and a first-arriving officer found a shed ablaze against the building.

Responding fire chiefs quickly upgraded the call to a second alarm and then a third alarm, drawing crews from as far away as Upper Makefield Township.

The arched bowstring truss roof of the large bowling alley collapsed due to the fire.

“Once the fire got in the roof, it went,” Dippolito said.

As of 6:45 a.m., flames were still visible inside the building and multiple ladder trucks were being used to douse water onto the structure.

The fire was intense enough to put a thick plume of black and gray smoke into the air. The smoke, according to LevittownNow.com readers, was visible from Trenton and Newtown Township.

Crews poured water on the side of neighboring apartments to stop the fire from extending.

While those apartments suffered melted siding due to the heat from the fire, the structure was otherwise spared from the flames, Dippolito said.

By around 10 a.m., some fire crews had been dismissed from the scene as dozens of firefighters battled hot spots, a process that lasted the entire day.

Dippolito said the roof collapse only made it harder for firefighters to put out all the hot spots.

Due to the size of the fire and draw on the Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal and Township of Falls Authority systems, volunteer crews had to tap several hydrants and pull water from distant connections get enough volume to soak the burning 18-lane bowling alley.