Fire damages Grindstone home
GRINDSTONE — Richard Lenk was driving home Monday afternoon when he saw smoke coming from the roof of a house along Grindstone Road.
“I thought ‘that house is on fire, I better stop,'” said Lenk, Grindstone fire chief. “When I knocked on the door, a woman answered. I told her that her house was on fire. She didn’t know. She said ‘you better call the fire department.’ I said ‘I’m the fire chief.’ She said ‘that was quick.’ I told her I would go get the fire truck and be right back.”
Moments later between 20 to 30 firefighters from area companies extinguished the fire that started around 2:15 p.m. and was contained mainly to the home’s attic.
Edna Weaver said she was asleep when Lenk came knocking at her door.
“I didn’t even know the house was on fire. My smoke alarms never went off. I was shocked,” said Weaver who lives with her daughter Debra and granddaughter Linda in the multi-story home at 1645 Grindstone Road.
Lenk said no one was injured by the fire. He said the fire was caused by electrical short circuit that caused wiring to catch fire in the attic. Lenk said smoke and water damage were isolated mainly to one end of the house near where the fire started.
He offered a preliminary damage estimate of about $25,000.
Weaver stood next to her granddaughter’s black pug named Bandit and watched as firefighters drilled a hole in the roof of her home to ventilate some of the smoke.
Firefighters threw down clothes, pieces of wooden furniture, window blinds and more.
“There was just a few items in the attic — nothing important and nothing that can’t be replaced,” she said.
Grindstone, California, Republic, Smock, Newell, Fayette City, West Brownsville and Washington Township volunteer fire departments responded, Lenk said.