Fire rages through Kensington building, interupts El

A fire raged through a building in West Kensington for three and a half hours on Tuesday.

Firefighters say the two-alarm fire started around 5 a.m. in a two-story Rainbow/Payless store near the York-Dauphin SEPTA station.

Hydrant problems caused water department officials to respond as the fire went to three alarms around 7 a.m.

Firefighters declared the fire under control around 8:30 a.m.

No injuries have been reported.

The store, which is owned by Maverick Management Corp. in Brooklyn, was cited for fire code violations in October, the Philadelinquency.com blog reported as the fire burned.

According to L&I records, there was an exposed electrical junction box on the exterior 2nd floor, unlit exit signs, and fire extinguishers lacked appropriate inspection tags.

As of Feb. 6, the last time L&I updated the building’s records, all of the violations were fixed.

Phone calls to Maverick Management Corp. were not returned.

SEPTA’s rail service was suspended until 10:30 a.m. on the Market-Frankford Line between Huntingdon and Berks Stations. Trains did not stop at the York-Dauphin Station until late in the afternoon.

The fire was across the street from the former Bucks Hosiery factory which burned down two years ago and claimed the lives of firefighters Robert Neary and Daniel Sweeney.

The vacant mill had deteriorated under ownership of Yechiel and Michael Lichtenstein’s New York-based YML Realty Holdings. The Lichtensteins owed more than $60,000 in liens, building code violations, and unpaid property taxes.