Father lowers 2 children to safety to escape Bernville house fire
Feb. 22—A family of four was rescued from the second floor of their smoke-filled Bernville home with the help of a trash truck driver who discovered the back of the home on fire late Sunday, a fire official said.
The truck driver noticed smoke from the back porch in the home at West Third Street and Route 183 about 11:45 p.m., Deputy Chief Derek Kissler of the Bernville Fire Company said Monday.
The driver initially tried to put out the flames with an extinguisher but called 9-1-1 when that was unsuccessful.
Kissler pulled up within two minutes after the call was dispatched, responding directly from his home a few blocks away. He was already familiar with the occupants of the home, which is across Third Street from the fire station. Aware the family included young children, he said he was alarmed when he saw the family vehicles outside but no sign of the residents.
He asked the driver if the occupants were outside, and the driver responded that he didn't see anyone.
"We had no reports given to us of people being inside," Kissler said. "Once he said there was no one outside I knew there were kids and their parents inside. I told him to start banging on the door."
Kissler used his radio to upgrade the fire call to include entrapped occupants. That drew fire and rescue crews from seven other companies besides the Bernville crew, which arrived shortly after Kissler. Several ambulance crews also responded.
Though the firehouse is a stone's throw away, the station was unmanned at the time and the volunteers, many of whom live in the small borough, responded directly from their homes to the station to get a fire truck.
Meanwhile, the family, who had been sleeping, were awakened by the banging on the door and the smoke alarms. It took a while for smoke to permeate the living quarters and activate the alarms, Kissler explained.
Before the other firefighters arrived, the children's father lowered each child, who appeared to be 6 to 8 years old, so their feet were dangling low enough for the truck driver to easily catch them.
The initial fire crew arrived and quickly put out the flames at the back of the home while Kissler and other firefighters extended ground ladders to the second-floor window in the front, assisting the parents down the ladder.
The rescue was completed within six minutes of the call, which was quick considering no one was in the station when the call came in, Kissler said.
"The guys did an amazing job, everyone did," he said several hours after the operation. "They were doing fire suppression while we were pulling down the parents from the window in the front."
The family dog and some cats also made it to safety.
The family members were evaluated at the scene by emergency medical personnel and did not need to be taken to a hospital.
Their home was rendered uninhabitable by the smoke, and they spent the rest of the night at a relative's home, Kissler said, adding that the American Red Cross was contacted to assist the family with their immediate needs.
The fire appears to have started outside the back of the house and extended to the porch, Kissler said. A state police fire marshal is investigating.
