Worker unaware of fire until neighbor alerts him
A man who was painting and installing flooring Thursday in a remodeling project at 112 South St. in Butler had his work interrupted just after noon.
“A lady beat on the door and said, 'There's smoke coming out of the house,'” said the man, who identified himself only as Mike.
Unaware a fire was burning in the attic, Mike followed the woman's instructions and hurried from the second floor and out into the street.
Neighbors had already called 911, and firetrucks from Butler, Veterans Affairs, and Butler and Penn townships were soon on the scene.
Firefighters entered the building and put ladders up to the attic to knock the flames down with compressed-air foam.
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They also dropped scorched insulation and other items from the attic window as smoke continued to waft upward.
John Zanicky, the home's owner for 24 years, said he recently had a hoarder-type couple living in the house who were making payments toward buying it.
When they abandoned the two-story house, Zanicky burned 10 bags of combustible materials and took multiple bags of garbage to the dump.
“It was terrible in there,” Zanicky said. “Almost unlivable.”
He recently started the remodeling project in the interest of selling the house or adding it to his 20 rentals around Butler.
“I don't understand,” Zanicky said as he watched the firefighters work. “There is nothing up there (that could start a fire.)”
He planned to call his insurance company to see if the building was insured. His last tenants were supposed to have insured the building because they were in the process of buying it.
“I got it all cleaned up and looking beautiful and now this,” Zanicky said.Capt. Jim Kaufman of the Butler Bureau of Fire said smoke was coming from two dormers in the building's attic when crews arrived.The fire was around the attic window on the west side of the house and in the attic ceiling.“We knocked it down in five to 10 minutes,” Kaufman said.Fire Chief Chris Switala estimated the damage at about $27,000.He said the home sustained fire damage in the attic and water damage on the first and second floors.The cause of the fire is under investigation, Switala said.The worker who was inside the building had been staying there, and will be helped by the Red Cross, he said.Switala said Butler firefighters were on the scene in four minutes, had the fire under control in 30 minutes, and remained on the scene for about two hours.He said the house is uninhabitable.
