Three Homes Lost to Fires During PA Storm
By Frank Andruscavage
Source Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
Three northern Schuylkill County homes were destroyed and two others damaged in three fires Friday.
Gusting winds coupled with blowing and drifting snow made getting to the first fire in Ryan Township around 1:25 p.m. difficult. In Ryan Township, the call came in for a report of a garage fire at a home in the area of 390 Tuscarora Mountain Drive.
About an hour later, a fire in Frackville forced a woman and her pets onto a first-floor roof, but she was able to make it into the window of an attached home.
Then, just before 9 p.m., crews were called to West Main Street, Ringtown, and found heavy fire in a double home.
Flames, fueled by high winds, engulfed that house and an attached home as well as another home separated by a walkway.
Ryan Township
In the initial Ryan Township fire, volunteers from Ryan Township, Hometown and Mahanoy City responded and were told that flames had spread to the attached home.
Crews worked for about an hour to bring the fire under control with the assistance of firefighters from Altamont, Sheppton-Oneida, Delano, Walker Township, Ringtown Valley Fire and Rescue, Girardville, Fountain Springs, West Penn Township, Gordon, Tuscarora, Shenandoah and Tamaqua.
Tanker trucks shuttled water to a portable dam set up on Tuscarora Mountain Road near the fire. Once empty, tankers refilled at nearby Locust Lake State Park.
In addition, the Tamaqua Fire Department Rapid Intervention Team was at the scene in the event a firefighter would become injured or trapped while fighting the fire.
Ryan Township Fire Chief Matt Morgan said the home is used by Tara Brugger, manager of Locust Lake and Tuscarora state parks. He said the woman, her husband and their 3-year-old child were in Florida at the time of the fire.
Morgan said the fire started when a large tree fell onto a high voltage power line and knocked the line onto an attached garage, starting the fire.
Morgan said the home is one of the oldest in the valley and is owned by the state park service.
Frackville
Just over an hour later, around 2:30 p.m., Frackville firefighters were called to a home at 9 S. Railroad St., Frackville, for a report of a house fire with entrapment and people on the roof.
At the scene, crews found Stacy Bobyak on a front porch roof with one of her dogs as smoke poured from second-floor windows.
Crews were able to assist Bobyak to safety by getting her into a second-floor window of the attached home.
Bobyak, her husband, Andrew, and the couple’s dogs all escaped the fire, emergency personnel at the scene said.
Frackville police said Stacy Bobyak suffered from smoke inhalation and was treated at the scene by Frackville EMS.
Firefighters from Altamont, Englewood, Ashland, Minersville, Ringtown Valley Fire and Rescue, Girardville, Schuylkill Haven, Shenandoah, Mahanoy City and Aristes assisted Frackville firefighters at the scene along with the Mahanoy City Fire Department Rapid Intervention Team.
Frackville Fire Chief Charles Berger could not be reached for comment Friday night.
Ringtown
In Ringtown, crews were battling flames late Friday at a home at 26, 28 and 30 W. Main St.
Emergency personnel said the fire is believed to have started in the 28 W. Main St. home and spread with the help of gusting winds.
All of the occupants escaped the homes safely and no other information was available late Friday night.
Firefighters from Ringtown Valley Fire and Rescue along with crews from surrounding communities, as well as companies from Luzerne and Columbia counties, responded to assist.
Contact the writer: [email protected]; 570-628-6013
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