House fire burns basket, dresser
MIDDLESEX TWP — Toys may have started a fire Wednesday morning at the house at 288 Kozy Corner Road.
Township police responded to the home of Jason and Crystal Yost at 10:20 a.m. to find a wicker basket and a dresser in the upstairs bedroom of the couple's youngest daughter, Olivia, 3, on fire.
Police quickly put the flames out with a fire extinguisher before firefighters from Middlesex Township, Penn Township, and Saxonburg arrived on scene.
Middlesex Assistant Fire Chief Glenn Pfeifer said he wasn't sure what started the fire, but said it might have been a snowglobe on top of the girl's dresser.
Crystal Yost, who was home with her daughter at the time of the fire, also pointed out a small magnifying glass toy in the burnt basket as a possible cause of the flames.
Pfeifer and Yost speculated either the snowglobe or the magnifying glass may have concentrated sunlight from the nearby window into a small clothes basket between the bed and the dresser, setting it ablaze.
Yost said the wicker basket had costume clothes in it that she could see as being flammable.
The room had no electrical appliances plugged in, nor was there damage to the outlets.
Yost said she bought the antique dresser at an auction for $300 at the beginning of the year.
Neither Jason Yost nor the couple's twin 10-year-old daughters were home at the time. The family's pet dog and lizard were in the home at the time, but were quickly taken to a neighbor's house for safety.
Yost said she was downstairs with her daughter when the fire started.
She said they were supposed to volunteer at the Meals on Wheels event at Glade Run Presbyterian Wednesday morning, but they had decided to stay home because Olivia had a cough.
“It could've been so much worse if we were not home,” she said. “We're very thankful.”
The house is insured.
