There's more than one way to fight a basement fire. Allentown, Pennsylvania Fire Department improvises at hoarder's burning home.

More details at Newsworking.org

Bill Rohrer at Newsworking.org says firefighters in Allentown, Pennsylvania had a very tough time with a house fire that began in the basement at 627 Allen Street on Monday. Reported around 2:30 PM, firefighters were still dealing with the fire until almost midnight. The problem was the large amount of material inside the home.

Here's how WFMZ-TV describes it:

Fueling the fire, investigators said, was floor to ceiling stacks of cardboard boxes, electrical equipment and paper.

Fire crews said the homeowner, Dan Vuong, tried to put the flames out himself and didn't call 911.

The first firefighters to arrive on the scene said they couldn't get inside the home because of the debris and thick smoke.

They said it was so bad that the first floor of the home actually collapsed, but only fell six inches.  It didn't fall any further because the debris that was in the basement held the floor up.

After trying various ways to access the seat of the fire amid the heavy fire load inside the basement, the fire department called in heavy equipment to rip open the front wall and dig the burning debris out of the home.

Here's more from Newsworking.org on the earlier efforts to put out the fire:

Heavy fire was venting from the rear of the house. Crews had access problems to the rear due to a lack of an alley. Companies stretched hand lines through the front door of the dwelling to start their attack.

As they darkened down the fire in the kitchen, they had heavy fire in the basement. A hand line was stretched to the basement, but they couldn't gain access to find the seat of the fire.

Other crews made it to the 2nd floor to conduct a search and found fire on this floor and radioed for a hand line.

As crews tried to find the seat of the fire, it was determined that they were working in a house occupied by hoarders.

At 14:54 hours, Battalion 2 transmitted the second alarm. Engines 10, 14, Air 1, Cars 40, 47, 48 and Engines 5 and 8 responded.

As the hours passed, crews were still trying to access the fire in the basement without success.

Chief 40 special-called North Catasauqua's CAFS (Foam Engine) Engine 18-11 into the scene. By 22:00 hours, that idea had failed too.