Uniontown woman escapes burning home
A fire in a vacant house in Uniontown early Tuesday spread to a nearby home where an 83-year-old woman had lived for more than 50 years and raised her family. Helen Miniafee was rescued by police and neighbors and treated at the scene as firefighters fought the blaze at 39 S. Grant St. Miniafee lived alone at 41 S. Grant St.
One firefighter was slightly injured when a board fell and struck him in the face, a city fire department spokesman said.
Fire Chief Myron Nypaver said landlord Dorothy Miller owns the vacant house, which was scheduled by the city for demolition. Nypaver said that he has no address or any other information on Miller and all of the fire department’s correspondence sent to her has been returned, marked “return to sender.”
“Because we can’t find her, we have had to endure the cost of maintaining the property because of the condition it was in,” Nypaver said. “The house has been broken into several times, so we boarded it up, secured it and cleaned the property.”
Nypaver said like a lot of other vacant houses in the city, people are breaking in, taking the copper and metal out of the homes and selling the scrap metal. He said that the house on Grant Street is in foreclosure and the fire department is trying to locate the mortgage company that will be responsible for the property.
Nypaver said he was at the house a couple of days ago with the redevelopment authority director, forming a demolition list.
“Two houses that were on the list were on fire this week,” said Nypaver. “Every structure we take down has to go through a historical review. We have to submit the information to the state because we use federal and state monies.”
Nypaver said the next round of money isn’t due until August. He also said many people don’t realize that the city doesn’t have the kind of money it takes to do demolition work.
“Over the past three and one-half years, we have demolished over 150 structures,” he continued. “That money comes in cycles, so we have to demolish in cycles.”
Nypaver said no city resident’s calls have gone unheard. He additionally said that it costs the city $250 per house to board them up and it cost $500 to have 39 S. Grant St. cleaned up. He said there were tires, furniture and other debris on the property.
Nypaver said many people don’t report when a house has been broken into because they don’t want to get involved. However, he said Miniafee did report that youths were coming in and out of the vacant house.
“She was afraid that the house was going to catch fire,” said Nypaver, “and she was right.”
Miniafee’s son, Ronald Miniafee, said his mother was fortunate that she got out of the house when she did.
“She was real lucky that the police and neighbors Tony and Todd Jackson got there as fast as they did and helped her out,” Ronald Miniafee said.
Ronald Miniafee, whose mother has trouble walking, agreed with Nypaver that his mother has been trying to get something done with the vacant house next door for about a year.
“About a week ago, I saw two cans of gasoline on the back porch,” said Ronald Miniafee, “so I called the fire department and they came out. Myron told me last night that he was trying to get the house torn down but there was so much paperwork involved it may take a while.”
Ronald Miniafee said at night there have been teenagers going in and out of the house, even though Allegheny Energy turned off the electricity about a week ago.
The house sustained extensive damage. Ronald Miniafee said his mother is staying with relatives.
“The fire burned through the roof and the left side of the house and everything is damaged either by fire, smoke or water. I’m waiting on the insurance company right now, but who knows when they will show up.”
Assistant Fire Chief Chuck Coldren said there was heavy fire on the first and second floors of the two-story wood frame vacant house that spread to Miniafee’s home. He said firefighters received the call around 2:50 a.m.
“We had Farmington Volunteer Fire Department and South Connellsville’s Rapid Intervention Team, in addition to Uniontown Ambulance and police. The fire is under investigation by the state police fire marshal,” Coldren said.
Coldren said the fire appeared to have started on the first floor of the vacant house. One firefighter was injured when a board fell from the second floor and hit him in the face. Firefighters were at the scene until about 6:10 a.m.
Nypaver said firefighters did a good job of keeping the blaze contained to the attic of Miniafee’s house.
“People need to realize that these two houses were so close together that you could have reached out the window and touched either house,” said Nypaver. “A lot of the houses in town are like that.”
Nypaver said fire is an amazing beast.
“You have to realize when we pulled up the vacant house it was about 80 percent engulfed in flames,” he continued. “There is only so much you can do in a situation like that and our firefighters did one heck of a job.”
Nypaver said Uniontown City Council is working on a landlord-licensing program that would require landlords to register their properties.
“That would give us the power to inspect those properties twice a year for code violations,” said Nypaver. “In other words, this will make landlords maintain their property and if they live out of town, they will be required to have a local contact person.”