Thirteen residents in upper floors of two large, downtown Tamaqua apartment buildings fled to the streets in bitter 22-degree air shortly after midnight when smoke filled one apartment and began wafting through floors and walls of others.

The Tamaqua Fire Department and emergency medical units were dispatched to 12 West Broad St. at 12:15 a.m. Friday by the Schuylkill Communications Center for a report of smoke filling a second floor apartment and moving elsewhere.

"The man who called said he'd get everyone out of the building," said the dispatcher.

The four-story building houses the Pennsylvania Performing Arts Center on the first floor and has multiple apartments upstairs.

Firefighters soon realized that the adjacent building, 14 West Broad St., also was impacted.

That building houses Maria Check Cashing on the first floor and has six apartments in the upper three levels.

See Friday's Times News for complete details.