Zelie VFD president deals with fire at his own home
ZELIENOPLE — Not even nearly 30 years of firefighting experience can prepare someone when his own home burns.
Ed Grunnagle, president of the Zelienople Volunteer Fire Department, found himself battling flames tearing through his own home at 306 Hazel St. shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.
Grunnagle has been with the department since 1986.
“It's something you never hope to see at your own house,” Grunnagle said Saturday morning as he and several of his friends and fellow firefighters helped clean out the badly burned home.
It is unclear exactly how the fire started in Grunnagle's garage, but it quickly spread to his home after a 150-gallon propane tank exploded from the heat.
Grunnagle said he used the propane to heat his garage, which had in it a 1995 pickup truck, a lawn mower, and 25 years worth of tools.
About 35 firefighters from Zelienople, Cranberry Township, and Harmony volunteer fire departments responded to the fire, including Grunnagle.
Grunnagle's wife, Diane, was home at the time the fire started.
She said she saw flames coming from the garage and rushed inside her home to grab keys to the truck in hopes of moving it. By the time she returned outside, the roughly 26 by 30-foot garage was engulfed in flames.
Grunnagle had left his home shortly before the fire started. He was on his way to do some work on one of the department's fire engines when the call came in.
Fire Chief Rob Reeb said the home was a total loss.
Grunnagle said many of the home's contents were not burned and were salvageable, but said everything in the garage was destroyed.
“It's all gone,” he said.
There is insurance on the home and the garage, although Grunnagle could not place a value estimate on the damage.
“My son and I are going to sit down and compile a list of everything,” he said.
Grunnagle said the work of all the responding units helped prevent the fire from being worse than it was.
“The guys did a tremendous job,” he said. “They went inside the home and knocked the fire back the way it came. They did everything like they were trained to do.”
The cold weather made battling the blaze even more difficult.
“The trucks give you fits when it's that cold,” Reeb said. “Everything was frozen up before we even got on scene.”
Grunnagle said he and his wife are temporarily staying with neighbors.
