Fire leaves family homeless
JEFFERSON TWP — A fast-moving fire on Monday morning destroyed a two-story house in Jefferson Township, leaving a family homeless less than two weeks before Christmas.
Five people, including two children, were inside the rental home on the 300 block of Victory Road, but everyone got out safely after the fire was discovered shortly before 5:30 a.m. The family did not have renter's insurance.
“We lost everything,” said Chris Stivason. He lived at the home with his girlfriend and his brother, Travis. His two children, ages 12 and 13, were at the home visiting for the weekend.
Three chickens in the basement perished in the fire. A wood-burning stove in the basement had been used the day before.A cause of the fire is undetermined, said Lt. Andy Freehling of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company. The state police fire marshal has been called but the fire was not believed to be suspicious, Freehling said.Stivason said his alarm woke him at the same time he realized there was a fire in the house.“I woke up and I noticed the house was all cloudy,” he said.He couldn't see anything, he said.Everyone else in the house was sleeping, and there were no smoke detectors.“I yelled for the kids,” Stivason said. “I yelled for everybody to get up and get out.”All of the home's three bedrooms were on the second floor. Travis Stivason was in his bedroom when he heard his brother yelling about the fire.“Everybody was screaming,” Travis said. “I wasn't sure where it was. I opened up a window in my bedroom. I put my head out and thought about jumping.”From the window, he eventually saw that his brother's girlfriend and one of his brother's children had already made it outside.Among the screams he heard were those calling out for his brother's other child. That became Travis' overriding concern.He said he was “shook up mostly,” but not scared. “You can say I was shocked and surprised, too.”
Eventually, like everyone else, he and the others still in the house managed to make it down the stairs and out the front door.But it wasn't easy to navigate, Chris said, because of the thick smoke that filled the interior of the house.While making his escape, he said, he noticed fire — “smoke and flames,” he said — in the living room.At least eight departments responded and battled the blaze, which was under control by 7 a.m., Freehling said.Crews accessed a fire hydrant at the nearby Victory Road Business Park in neighboring Clinton Township for water to fight the fire.The American Red Cross was called to assist the family with emergency needs. The name of the home's owner, who lives nearby, was not immediately available, and it was not known if he had insurance.
Chris said that he keeps chickens in a coop outside the house. He had brought three young chickens into the basement for the night. They were killed in the fire.Assisting the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company were volunteer firefighters from Penn, Middlesex, Buffalo, Adams and Butler townships, and Herman, all in Butler County. West Deer Volunteer Fire Department 1 in Allegheny County also assisted.
