Brian Hagberg
SHEFFIELD, Pa. – An early morning fire destroyed a home in Sheffield on Friday, Jan. 27.
Firefighters were called to the scene on Dunham Street at 4:38 a.m. and the house was “fully involved” when they arrived. All the occupants made it out safely, but one family pet, a cat, was killed.
“One pet was lost, but everybody else made it out fine,” Sheffield VFD Chief Matt Bell said.
Though firefighters were still on the scene as of 10 a.m., Bell said they were able to extinguish the flames quickly.
“We had a good knockdown on it,” Bell said. “And then the extensive overhaul with how far it had progressed through the house. It took us a couple of hours to get it all squared away.”
What caused the fire is still under investigation, but Bell said it appears accidental.
“Nothing suspicious,” Bell said. “Just lucky and fortunate that everybody made it out.”
One neighboring home suffered some cosmetic damage due to the heat. Bell said an excavator was on its way to assist with the clean-up.
“Fox and Sons is bringing up an excavator to help us (because) the integrity is compromised,” Bell said. “We can’t get in and do a thorough and good mop up as we’d like, so we’ll have them come in and rip it apart so that we can do that. And it protects the neighbor’s houses if it were to rekindle.”
In addition to the 18 Sheffield VFD firefighters, crews from Cherry Grove, Clarendon, and Kane assisted as well.
“We’re very fortunate,” Bell said. “And we’ve had a great outreach in the past couple of years, have new members and whatnot. And we’re very fortunate with the outturn that we have and are very thankful for that. I mean, we are truly blessed.”
