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Old 12-18-2003, 03:47 PM   #1
russotto
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Fire!

Pretty high up on the things I do NOT want to hear on KYW when I'm headed out of work:

"A fatal fire in a townhouse community in Trappe, Montgomery County".

Even less was the confirmation later on that it WAS "a townhouse community behind the Trappe Shopping Center" -- i.e. mine.

Fortunately my house was not among those affected. But since I had stuff to do before I could go check, I was a bit worried for an hour or so.

This makes the second time a unit in my development burned down -- last time was when I was on a business trip and a buddy sent me an e-mail about it (gee, thanks, buddy.).
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Old 12-18-2003, 07:32 PM   #2
xoxoxoBruce
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Bummer Russ, I got burned out of an apartment building once, but that was wake up to smoke and no time to worry.
For that "in the pit of your stomach" feeling it was a tree. A 100 footer close to the house that ants had hollowed out. One windy night a friend was leaving late and came back in to tell me the tree had made a loud "crack" sound.
Couple weeks later I went to a friends up in Denver, PA. My buddy up the road saw the tree down and called a friend in Jersey to see if I was there. The guy in Jersey called Denver but I had left. The girl in Denver knew I was stopping in Blue Ball, PA, so she called there. I got the message "the tree went down". That's all, just "the tree went down". I'm still 60 miles, over rural roads, from home on a rainy night, but I made it home "quickly".
The tree not only missed the house, it missed damn near everything. Took the wires down, broke the bulb but not the globe on the post light and drove branches two feet into the ground a few inches either side of my new driveway. Virtually no freakin damage.
I did screw up though, in that I felt sorry for the utility guys putting the wires back up so I got them a pizza. Had to wait an extra half hour for my power to get back on while they ate.

Last edited by xoxoxoBruce; 04-07-2007 at 06:05 PM.
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Old 12-18-2003, 10:58 PM   #3
tw
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Re: Fire!

Quote:
Originally posted by russotto
[b]Pretty high up on the things I do NOT want to hear on KYW when I'm headed out of work:

"A fatal fire in a townhouse community in Trappe, Montgomery County".
Why did it burn and what might need be corrected in your place?

About 1 year ago this week, another here had a serious fire due to a real Christmas tree. Since then, new construction has required arc fault circuit breakers - that probably would have prevented the tree fire. If one has a real Christmas tree, then the circuit breaker for those tree lights should be replaced with an arc fault type (found in Home Depot for about $30). Then after Christmas, that breaker can be moved to protect bedrooms - where they are most required.

Another also had a bedroom fire because a lamp cord failed. An arc fault breaker would have prevented that fire as well. This is new technology (was in development for over 10 years) and is important in locations where a shorted wire or lamp could create a spark - that would create a house fire.
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Old 12-19-2003, 12:29 AM   #4
wolf
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Actually, it was a double fatality fire. Woman and her elderly mother, apparently.

I spent most of last night being quite aware of the fire, but for different reasons than russotto.

I have a county EMS pager that I have to carry for the CISM team. I receive the county all-calls in addition to stuff related solely to the team, so about every half-hour I was getting situation updates.



KYW's report says the cause is still undetermined.

The article in the Times Herald doesn't speak to cause either, but does contain more details. The print edition had some pictures of what was left of the building.

Suck-ass thing to happen around the holidays.

Strangely, WPVI tv decided that a housefire in North Wales that was easily contained with little damage and no fatalities was news, but the double fatality in Trappe is nowhere to be found.
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Old 12-19-2003, 12:35 AM   #5
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Quote:
This makes the second time a unit in my development burned down
Thank God for two-hour fire walls between condos/townhouses.

Hope your stuff is intact! I'm not far away over in Fairfax, btw.
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Old 12-19-2003, 03:48 PM   #6
russotto
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tw, Christmas tree would have been my guess, but the fire turns out to have been arson-murder-suicide. The lady who owned the place sent a message to her employer confessing (not sure how the message was sent). Apparently she was afraid she was going to be caught embezzling money, which she'd been doing for quite some time. Her mother who lived with her died in the fire. Nasty.

The firewall held, but the roof of the unit next to the burning one also burned somewhat. And the two units next to the burning one were reportedly pretty heavily damaged by water and smoke (one firefighter said the unit next door was "all but a loss").

The unit which burned had the back wall, chimney and a little bit of the end wall intact when I saw it, but they demolished that with a backhoe while it was still burning. All that stands now is the brick facade shared with the next building, the garage, the basement walls, and the deck.

One of the news reports mentioned favorable wind conditions. Couldn't have been better, really -- this was an end unit at the edge of the development, facing a park across First Avenue in Trappe. The wind was blowing more or less directly towards the park from the unit, so nothing else was in the path. If it had been blowing the other way, the fire would have burned the entire set of eight townhouses to the ground, and possibly jumped to other buildings from there. If it had been blowing towards the front of the house, it might have spread to the homes on the other side of the street.

Beestie: This is Trappe, Montgomery County, PA, not Montgomery County, MD, so you are pretty far away.
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Old 12-20-2003, 12:41 AM   #7
wolf
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I spend a fair amount of time saying "no, Pennsylvania."

Had a woman call one night looking for psychiatric services, started going through the info with her. I learned long ago to make one of the first questions, after I'd established safety of the participants, "what town are you calling from."

I pretty much know all of the town and township names in Montgomery County, as well as many of the bordering counties so we can make the proper referrals. I get tripped up from time to time, but rarely.

Every now and again the answer is "Silver Spring."

A terrible holiday tragedy becomes a worse one with this being a murder-suicide. Shame no one either knew what she was going to do, or if they did, they didn't take her seriously.

Survivor guilt is a tough thing following a completed suicide.
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