Electrical fire levels Clinton farmhouse
CLINTON TWP — A fallen tree limb this morning brought down an electrical line and started a fire that destroyed a more than 150-year-old house on Sun Mine Road, authorities said.
The small farmhouse had been unoccupied for some time and no one was injured, according to firefighters.
The one-story house on the old Norris farm was already up in flames about 5:25 a.m. when a neighbor contacted 911.
There was nothing fire crews could do but “surround and drown” the wood structure encompassed by numerous trees, said Chief Chris Ballina of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company.
Investigators believe the fire was accidental and caused when gusting winds knocked down the limb of one of the trees onto a power line.
“The electrical line was arcing,” Ballina said.
Electricity was the only utility still connected to the house owned by Michael Norris, who lives across the street.
Norris' grandparents used to live in the house when they operated the farm, which included livestock, crops and apple trees, according to friends and neighbors. The house was built in 1858.
“It was a lovely little farmhouse,” said Elizabeth Stanek, a former neighbor who lived across the road for 11 years. “I remember it had the old wallpaper and a fruit cellar, which all the old farmhouses had.”
It was not immediately known when it was last inhabited but the home over time had become run down. But Ballina said Norris told fire officials that he had planned to eventually restore it.
The property was not insured. A damage estimate was not available this morning.
Assisting the Saxonburg VFC were firefighters from Middlesex and Buffalo townships and Sarver in Butler County and West Deer No. 1 in Allegheny County.
Stanek, who moved to Saxonburg three years ago, said she was saddened upon learning the old house was no longer there.
“It had such history,” she said.
