Firefighters were dispatched early Saturday morning to a narrow street in North Philadelphia, where flames danced menacingly in the front windows of an old two-story rowhouse. Lt. Matthew LeTourneau was among the members of Engine 45/Platoon A, located on 26th Street near York, who scrambled when the call came in at 8:51 a.m. Three minutes later, they arrived at the scene of the blaze: 2240 Colorado St., near 17th Street and Susquehanna Avenue.
The conditions were the kind that firefighters often dread. The region was still in the grips of a massive cold front that had pushed temperatures down to record lows; frigid weather always threatened to make their job all the more difficult.