About 400 volunteer firefighters from 25 area companies battled a spectacular fire in Slatington on Saturday, which destroyed an entire row of houses and left 32 people homeless.

The fire, which raged out of control for more than four hours, gutted the nine row houses in the 200 block of Oak Alley.

Karl Stern of Slatington, assistant commander of the Blue Mountain Control of the Tri-County Emergency Radio and Emergency Team, and Marian Whiteman of Palmerton, a Tri-County team dispatcher, worked together in rounding up all of the fire departments in the area to respond to the assist Slatington’s three companies in battling the blaze.