Owners planning to rebuild
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — The owners of the home on Whitestown Road that was badly damaged Monday by fire plan to rebuild.
The house is owned by John and Susan Thomas, both retired teachers. They live there with their adult daughter Amanda. No one was hurt, although a pet cat was still missing Wednesday.
“Nobody was hurt. We've been saying all we lost were things. Things can be replaced,” John Thomas said.
They are covered by homeowners insurance and plan to rebuild the house, a process estimated to take nine months, Thomas said.
The damage to the house and its contents is estimated at $400,000 to $500,000.
Firefighters were called to 836 Whitestown Road where flames were shooting through the roof on the rear part of the two-story house.
Though the house had significant damage, fire officials said they were able to knock it down and prevent the house from becoming a total loss.
But that was not the end of the troubles. Firefighters were called back about 5 a.m. Tuesday when burning in the roof rekindled. It rekindled a third time about 9 a.m.
The house was fully involved in fire for the second call and there was more damage, Thomas said.
From the street, the house looks OK, but the rear half of the roof collapsed and the second floor in the rear is essentially destroyed.
On Wednesday, a crew from a cleanup and restoration service was going through the house to catalog, clean and take away furniture, glassware or artwork that was not destroyed.
“All the upholstered furniture is damaged. They think they can salvage a couple things, but not much. If it wasn't damaged by the fire, the water took care of it,” Thomas said.
The house was built by Thomas' great grandparents in 1877 and had been passed down through several generations of the family. The couple have lived there for 48 years.
John Thomas was a teacher in the Butler School District for 36 years, and Susan Thomas taught in the South Butler School District also for 36 years.The house has 4,200 square feet and has three bathrooms and five bedrooms. It has undergone major renovations several times.In 1971, they build a large addition that added two bathrooms, and another major renovation was done 10 years ago.“We enjoy remodeling, but we weren't planning on remodeling the whole thing,” Thomas said.He said they are grateful for the volunteer firefighters who responded and to neighbors who offered to help them out.The family is making arrangements for a place to stay and are working with insurance adjusters.“We're very fortunate. You wonder why you're paying insurance all those years and now you know why,” he said.Investigators are not positive what started the blaze.State police deputy fire marshal DuWayne Baird said Tuesday that the possible cause of the fire could have been an ashtray that was dumped into a trash can shortly before the fire broke out.A fire investigator hired by their insurance company also visited the house. There was too much damage for him to make a determination on the cause, but it was ruled as accidental.
