Fire destroys East Huntingdon mobile home, 2 displaced

An East Huntingdon man and his home health aide escaped unharmed from a fire Thursday afternoon that destroyed the residence he shared with his son.

The fire, which was reported at 12:30 p.m., gutted two bedrooms and a bathroom in one end of the mobile home of John Thomas of Mt. Nebo Church Road and caused heat damage throughout the structure, said Chris Brinker, East Huntingdon assistant fire chief.

The cause of the fire was a malfunction in the hot water tank, which sparked a fire above the ceiling, Brinker said.

The structure held one mobile home inside another, making it harder for firefighters to reach the blaze, Brinker said.

Thomas, who resides with his son, Byron Thomas, said his home health aide smelled smoke in the ceiling and got him out of the structure. The aide was not identified.

“By the time we got out, it was engulfed in smoke,” Thomas said.

Bryon Thomas was not home when the fire started and received a call from his father. Because the fire started at his end of the mobile home, he was not able to salvage many of his possessions.

“We were very thankful she was here with him,” Ruth Kozemchak of Bradenville said of the home health aide who helped her 70-year-old father get out of the house.

The family praised firefighters for being able to save part of their home.

Fire hydrant didn’t work

Brinker said firefighters initially were hampered because the nearest fire hydrant was not operating. Firefighters had to drive about a half-mile to the next closest fire hydrant to get a municipal water supply, Brinker said.

Because there were multiple mobile homes inside the structure, the assistant chief said the fire was trapped inside the metal roof of an interior mobile home.

“It was like an oven inside. The heat melted ceiling fans” at the other end of the mobile home where the fire had not spread, Brinker said.

It took firefighters about an hour to extinguish the blaze, Brinker said.

The American Red Cross was assisting the family, which has relatives in the area.

East Huntingdon firefighters were assisted by units from Scottdale, Mt. Pleasant, Everson, Bullskin Township, Connellsville Township, Norvelt, Smithton and Hempfield, Brinker said.