Clay Twp. home destroyed
CLAY TWP — Two McGregor Road residents escaped safely before their home burned to the ground Friday afternoon.
The noon blaze took about 40 minutes to destroy the house.
Don Koglin, 59, of 190 McGregor Road said that he and his wife, Teri, were home and watching television when he saw smoke coming from a bedroom and called 911.
“We were just sitting there, watching TV when all of a sudden smoke comes rolling up the hallway,” said Koglin, adding that he believed the cause of the blaze to be a space heater in one of the two-story home's three bedrooms.
West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department Chief Matt Wilson said at the scene that the official cause of the fire would remain undetermined until the department could contact a state police fire marshal.
The Red Cross is providing assistance, including lodging, to the family.
The fire, which kept firefighters there until about 4:30 p.m., shut down a quarter-mile stretch of McGregor Road near its intersection with Hall Road.
Wilson said the home would be declared a total loss, but no estimate of the damage was immediately available.
Volunteer fire companies from East Butler, Prospect, Unionville, North Washington, Marion Township, Slippery Rock, Harrisville, Oneida Valley, Oakland Township and Center Township assisted, as did emergency responders from Butler Ambulance Service.
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