Published Monday, March 10, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
Paul Overly of Lake Road, Jefferson Township, looked out his window around 9 p.m. Sunday night and saw his neighbors' house lit up. But it wasn't from outdoor lighting.
"It was getting it going on a lot," he said, trying to describe the flames shooting out of Jim and Kim DeMarco's home at 287 Highland Road.
The home looked like a total loss after at least seven fire companies worked for well over an hour to quell the blaze that quickly swept through the home.
Freezing weather hampered efforts to douse the flames when a nearby hydrant on Zahniser Road froze up, and tanker engines had to go to a hydrant on Bend Road and U.S. Route 62, said Jefferson Township police Chief Jeff Lockard.
Firefighters sprayed the house with water from tanker trucks for about 45 minutes before they ran out of water. It was 10 p.m. before more water could be brought to the fire because of the hydrant problem.
According to Lockard, a call from an alarm company came into 911 and alerted the police. Jefferson Township policeman John McWilliams got to the house first and got the family of five out safely, Lockard said.
An neighbor said the DeMarcos told her that they had all been in their hot tub when one of their three children got out to get something and came back and said the house was filled with smoke.
"They just put in an outdoor woodburner, but I don't think that had anything to do with this," said Overly, adding that the neighbors had lived there about a year.
Assisting Jefferson Township Volunteer Fire Department was Fredonia, Mercer East End, Clark, Hermitage, Pymatuning and Transfer, Lockard said.
Also Sunday, local firefighters were called to a house fire at about 10 p.m. in the 1100 block of West A Street in Masury. Six fire departments were still on scene at 11 p.m., according to a spokesperson from Trumbull County 911.