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Lives lost in 1900s twisters that hit Wilkes-Barre City, Twp.

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<p>WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; A fire closed a nail salon Saturday afternoon right up the road from where a tornado caused a wide swath of damage just several days before.</p><p>At approximately 1 p.m., first responders got a call that smoke was coming from Casabella Nails &amp; Spa at 101 Bear Creek Boulevard in the Bear Creek Commons.</p><p>When rescuers arrived, smoke was spewing from the building.</p><p>Officials quickly made sure everyone was evacuated. There were no injuries reported.</p><p>&#8220;At the earliest Monday we will be able to determine the cause of the fire,&#8221; said township fire chief Rich Hart.</p><p>Tony Nguyen, an employee at Casabella, was not really aware of what was going on.</p><p>&#8220;I saw smoke coming out of the back, so I went to check the circuits,&#8221; Nguyen said. &#8220;But I evacuated all the customers first before leaving.&#8221;</p><p>Two employees of Moe&#8217;s Southwest Grill &#8212; only a few doors down from the salon &#8212; were able to help evacuate customers and try to put out the flames.</p><p>&#8220;(We) smelled smoke while we were in the back of Moe&#8217;s,&#8221; general manager Justin Sokol said. &#8220;We went and told the nail salon and they said that everything was fine.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Obviously, things weren&#8217;t fine,&#8221; Sokol added. &#8220;That&#8217;s when we started to evacuate patrons in our store first.&#8221;</p><p>Sokol and Lucas Kasloski grabbed an extra fire extinguisher from the dormant Hoopla Frozen Yogurt store that went out of business.</p><p>&#8220;To me, it appeared the smoke and flames were coming from the nail salon&#8217;s water heater,&#8221; Sokol said. &#8220;I just tried to extinguish the flames before it could spread, but once it started spewing back at me I had to leave.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The nail salon had a problem with its water heater three months ago,&#8221; added Kasloski. &#8220;That time it was more controlled.&#8221;</p><p>Luckily, responders were able to get there in time before the fire could spread to other businesses.</p><p>Besides the salon and Moe&#8217;s, the Bear Creek Commons is home to Jersey Mike&#8217;s Subs, Sports Clips and Buffalo Wild Wings. It&#8217;s unclear when those businesses will reopen.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre Township was the first to respond before being joined by rescuers from Hanover Township, Ashley, Plains, Pittston, Nanticoke and Kingston.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Moe&#8217;s Southwest Grill employee Lucas Kasloski helped evacuate patrons from Moe&#8217;s and assisted in trying to battle a fire at the nearby nail salon before first responders arrived at the scene. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Image-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Moe&#8217;s Southwest Grill employee Lucas Kasloski helped evacuate patrons from Moe&#8217;s and assisted in trying to battle a fire at the nearby nail salon before first responders arrived at the scene. </caption0><photoCredit0>Dan Stokes | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Image-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Firefighters are shown working on the top of Casabella Nails &amp; Spa in Wilkes-Barre Township during a fire Saturday afternoon. The blaze closed the stores in the Bear Creek Commons. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Image-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Firefighters are shown working on the top of Casabella Nails &amp; Spa in Wilkes-Barre Township during a fire Saturday afternoon. The blaze closed the stores in the Bear Creek Commons. </caption1><photoCredit1>Dan Stokes | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dan Stokes</p><p>ttlnews@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Fire at nail salon closes Wilkes-Barre Twp. shopping plaza near tornado zone