Brownsville family safe but homeless after fire
BROWNSVILLE – A Brownsville family is pulling together the pieces of their life after fire struck their home Tuesday night. Most of the 10 people who lived in the house were home when the fire began at 96 Frick St., but they got out safely.
Owner Harold Wolford, 71, said he had a difficult time convincing his wife that they had to get out of the house.
“I said, ‘Let’s get out, the house is on fire,'” Wolford said.
Wolford and his wife, Joann, got out of the house safely, though both have asthma and suffered from smoke inhalation. Joann Wolford is still at Brownsville General Hospital.
Wolford said his 6-year-old great-grandson alerted him to the fire, saying there was something wrong upstairs.
“The wall was burning,” Wolford said.
An official report is not yet available, but Wolford said the state police fire marshal was at his house Thursday and said the balze apparently started in the wiring in the kitchen wall. Wolford said he just had new wiring installed two months ago.
“We’re going to have to find a place to live,” Wolford said.
Family members were packing up the items they were able to salvage Thursday. Wolford said they were staying at a hotel temporarily, and the Red Cross has provided emergency funds for some clothing.
Walisa Isaac, who lived at the house with her parents and sister, along with her children, grandchildren and niece, said she was on her way home when she was alerted to the fire. The five children in the household range from 5 months old to 16 years old.
“My supervisor at CallTech had one of my co-workers call me on my cell phone to tell me my house was on fire,” Isaac said. “When I got there, I jumped out of the car and ran to my father. The ambulance was pulling out with my mother. I basically was just trying to find everyone in my family.”
Isaac said she followed the ambulance, and when it stopped in the center of Brownsville so an intravenous needle could be inserted, she jumped in and rode to the hospital with her mother.
Firefighters from South Brownsville, Brownsville No. 1, Hiller, West Brownsville and California were called to the scene. They were hampered not only by the extreme cold but also in part to the fact that Frick Patch, where the house is located, is on the far side of the railroad tracks. The house was severely damaged.
Brownsville Police Chief Gerald Elliot was working as a security guard at the Pennsylvania-American Water plant just down the street from the Wolford house when the fire began.
“When I heard the call come in, I called 911 and told them there was a train going across the crossing,” Elliot said. “By the time I got to the back of the house, the train was already clearing the crossing.”
Wolford said the train was already going over the crossing when he discovered the fire.
“It was already going down. I don’t think they could have stopped it anyway,” Wolford said.
Wolford said he thinks he has insurance, since he just got a statement from his insurance company. He said he’s planning to rebuild, but he still needs a place for his family to live in the meantime.