Fast-thinking fire chief saves home
GRINDSTONE – Quick thinking by a Fayette County fire chief helped to save a home in Grindstone from ruin Wednesday. Rich Lenk, Grindstone Volunteer Fire Department chief, said a fire began shortly after 11 p.m. at the home of an elderly man who is wheelchair bound on Park Street.
“We have been called there multiple times in the past because the elderly man who lives there accidentally burns kielbasa or sausage,” Lenk said. “He is always burning something and we are clearing the smoke from the home.”
This time, however, Lenk said a firefighter spotted flames coming from the rear of the residence.
“We had a water line break in Grindstone around 6 p.m. Wednesday and that night I still didn’t have water,” Lenk said. “As soon as I got the call of a fire, I started to call out for all the surrounding stations to respond because I was fearful that we might not have water at the scene. As it turned out, there was no water available at the location either.”
He said fire crews immediately determined that the man was not inside the home and were able to push the fire out the rear of the home and stop it from causing significant damage to the structure.
Lenk said that he later learned that the man might have recently moved from the residence, however, he noted that the man’s belongings were still inside the home.
The state police fire marshal has ruled the blaze was intentionally set.
“The origin definitely looked suspicious,” Lenk said. “It appeared that someone had kicked in the rear of the house and stuffed the oven full of clothes and threw a plastic baby stroller on top of it.”
In addition to Grindstone, volunteer firefighters from Fayette City, Republic, Smock, Allison 2, Flatwoods, Belle Vernon and California responded to the blaze.
Fayette County 911 officials also reported that multiple stations were placed on standby during the fire.