15:35 hrs on Monday February 14, 2020 Zerbe township units were dispatched for a working fire 153 Hart road, Zerbe Township. Fire Chief Ed Reed (Command) quickly came on the air confirming a thermal column 2 miles out with flames reported from 1 mile out.
Fire Chief Ed Reed “When I pulled in on the scene the garage roof had already collapsed and the home about half way up was fully involved” “With the terrain and the water supply it’s a bad area” We have a tanker filling in Trevorton, one down on 225, and one at a pond."
This incident was upgraded to a second alarm tanker task force (TTF) with a request for extra tankers due to the rural area of the fire.
A defensive operation was established using master streams to knock down most of the fire and used hand lines for mop up. As of now no cause has been determined for the fire.
Chief Reed confirmed that “nobody was in the home at the time of the fire” “The owner of the property, passed away”.
Pennsylvania State Fire Marshal was called to the scene to determine a cause of the fire.