WORTH TWP — Donna Martin lost her home of 32 years in an early morning fire Friday.

But she nearly lost something much more valuable — the treasured belongings of her deceased daughter.

“My daughter's stuff is in there,” Martin said as she watched firefighters extinguish hot spots in what remained of her mobile home on West Park Road near Route 108 in Worth Township.

Martin and her boyfriend, who also lives in the home, were both at work when the fire broke out around 5:45 a.m. No one was injured in the blaze.

A dozen fire departments from four counties responded, supplying about 40 firefighters and 10 tanker trucks.

The damage was so extensive that Trooper DuWayne Baird, a deputy fire marshal, was unable to determine the cause of the blaze following his investigation.

“It's going down as an undetermined cause,” he said, adding that the fire was not considered suspicious.

“It appears to have started in the front of the house in the kitchen area,” said Ryan Hanchosky, chief of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company.

The flames took hold and quickly spread.

“The fire was up through the roof by the time we got here,” Hanchosky said.

Martin's son, Rick Graham of Grove City, was apparently the first family member to make his way to the house where he grew up. He was headed to work when he received a phone call from a former neighbor.

“The neighbor told me to get ahold of my mom, 'Your house is on fire,'” he said.

Standing next to her son, Martin was unable to fight back tears. “This is sickening,” she said. “My heart's broken.”

Her thoughts turned to her late 14-year-old daughter and the child's possessions in the burning house.

“That's the most painful thing,” Martin said.

Nicole Lynn Cyphert, her daughter, died Nov. 17, 2001, a day after a car struck her as she attempted to cross New Castle Street in Slippery Rock. She was with several other teens on their way to visit a friend.

She was treated at the scene by Slippery Rock firefighters before a medical helicopter flew her to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she later died from her injuries.

Nicole was a freshman at Slippery Rock Area High School and a cheerleader for the middle school midget team.

Martin's next-door neighbor, Heather Brinker, said that she and her sister used to “hang out” with Nicole.

A stay-at-home-mom, Brinker was unexpectedly awakened Friday morning.

“My dog started freaking out,” she said. She peeked outside and noticed many passing motorists stopped on the road.

She then saw Martin's house on fire.

“It was actually really bad,” Brinker said. “I saw a bunch of orange.”

Hanchosky said two attack crews wasted little time getting into the home — one from the front of the structure and another from the back.

At least one addition to the home made battling the blaze more challenging. The “void space” between the addition walls hampered efforts to contain the blaze, according to crews on the scene. Such void spaces concealed the fire, making it more difficult for firefighters to get to it.

“Once it got into the roof, it just ran,” Hanchosky said of the blaze.

He guessed it took 45 minutes to contain the fire, but crews were on scene several hours.

Numerous tankers were called in because there are no available fire hydrants in the area and a “dry hydrant” malfunctioned, possibly due to a broken pipe. Dry hydrants are hydrants that rely on a cistern or a pond for water, rather than a water main.

Martin, who held out hope that Nicole's belongings in the basement would be spared, got her wish.

Trooper Luke Nelson, another deputy fire marshal assisting in the investigation, provided her with the good news. He was able to retrieve Martin's coveted, large, green plastic tote.

“That was the one with her daughter's keepsakes,” Nelson said.

The basement was flooded from the water used to fight the fire, but there was no fire damage. More importantly, the tote holding Martin's memories and most priceless possessions also survived the flames unscathed.

Nelson eventually carried the tote over to Martin, who was waiting anxiously at the storm cellar stairs.

“She was very appreciative and very emotional,” Nelson said. “It was nice that stuff, out of everything, wasn't lost in the fire.”

Baird, too, was happy to hear of the outcome.

“When I heard Luke say he was able to get the bin out, that made me feel good,” Baird said.

The house, however, is considered a total loss with an estimated damage of $200,000. According to authorities, the home was insured.

Assisting the Slippery Rock VFC were firefighters from Harrisville, Unionville, Portersville and Prospect in Butler County; Scott and Slippery Rock townships and Volant in Lawrence County; Springfield and Pine townships and Grove City in Mercer County; and Clintonville in Venango County.