Family's dog dies in house fire
WINFIELD TWP — A homeowner escaped a fire Sunday that badly damaged his family's two-story house on Christmas Lane.
Paul Brosenitsch suffered apparent smoke inhalation but was otherwise uninjured in the blaze, authorities said.
Brosenitsch's wife, Jacy, and the couple's seven children — five of whom are adopted — were at church when the fire broke out about noon.
The family's dog died in the fire and a pet cat was still missing about two hours later.
The blaze apparently started in the basement, said Zach Hartman, assistant chief of the Winfield Township Volunteer Fire Department.
A cause was not immediately known but Hartman said it appeared to be accidental, possibly electrical. A damage estimate was unavailable. The owners had insurance.
Brosenitsch, a steelworker, was home alone, having worked a midnight shift at an Allegheny County mill earlier in the day, family members said,
While he was sleeping upstairs, his wife and children were attending service at nearby St. Joseph Church on Stoney Hollow Road.
“(Paul) said he woke up and saw fire coming up through the floor,” said Jacy's sister, Tara Barbiaux, who lives on Stoney Hollow Road.
His initial instinct was to check for his family.
“He went to make sure the baby wasn't in her crib sleeping,” Barbiaux said. “He then came running out.”
“He got out in the nick of time,” Paul Barbiaux said of his son-in-law.
The home's smoke detectors were sounding, when fire crews got there, Hartman said, but it was not immediately known if Brosenitsch heard them.“He wears ear plugs (when he sleeps),” Paul Barbiaux said.Fire whistles first alerted Tara Barbiaux that something was wrong. She saw a fire and rescue truck pass by and feared a possible accident involving one of her sister's children, who range in age from less than one year old to 16 years.“I came running up the road in my bare feet,” she said. “I got up here and all I could see was smoke, no flames.”She also saw her brother-in-law standing in the front yard.“He was just upset and didn't seem to have any problems breathing,” Tara Barbiaux said. “He was scared.”One of Brosenitsch's brothers later took him by private vehicle to ACMH Hospital in East Franklin Township, Armstrong County, for treatment of possible smoke inhalation.“Smoke was coming from the basement and first floor when I arrived,” Hartman said.A three-man attack crew armed with a hose line wasted no time getting inside.“The homeowner's wife got there and said the family dog was in the basement,” Hartman said. “We tried to find the dog.”But when they did, it was too late. The 8-month-old Siberian husky was dead.“The fire traveled through the walls pretty quickly,” Hartman said.
While battling the blaze, crews had to open up the first floor above the basement and a portion of the exterior siding and wall in back of the house.Most of the fire damage was in the basement and first floor, but the second floor also sustained some fire damage.Besides the fire and smoke, firefighters took on the heat and humidity, as temperatures climbed well into the upper-80s.Assisting the Winfield VFD, according to a county 911 dispatcher, were firefighters from Buffalo Township, Sarver, Saxonburg, Herman, South Butler and Middlesex in Butler County and South Buffalo and Worthington in Armstrong County.It was not immediately known if any personal property in the house was salvageable. Paul and Jacy Brosenitsch have lived there with their growing family for 10 years or so.The Brosenitsch clan for the time being will be staying with family.
