A home in Scranton was destroyed from a fire early Thursday morning.

Scranton Fire Chief Doug Duff says the fire department was paged to a fully engulfed fire at a home in the 1100 block of Cedar Street around 4am Thursday morning. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio firefighters went to the same two-story house two times on Wednesday. Duff explains the first call was about visible flames coming from a wall that led upstairs to under the roof in the attic. After firefighters put that out, Duff says they were called back a few hours later to the same area and saw smoke that was caused by a smoldering beam. 

However, Duff points out when they were on scene Thursday morning, the home was completely engulfed in flames. He says the decision was made that a fire that size would’ve been difficult to extinguish and save the structure, so the department pushed the building in to protect neighboring properties, which he notes there was no other property damage, other than the home being a total loss. Duff states that the homeowner and family were already staying elsewhere due to the two fire calls on Wednesday, and were not home when the house became fully engulfed. 

Duff says no one was hurt from the incident, but firefighters faced several challenges with icy conditions, due to the temperatures being below zero and the water from their hoses freezing to the sidewalks and other areas. He adds that the cause of the accidental fire was electrical related. The Greene County Sheriff’s Office and Greene County Ambulance also responded to the scene.

Additionally, Paton-Churdan Principal Annie Smith posted on the school’s Facebook page that one the family members attends their school and Smith listed several items the family is in need of at this time, which items can be dropped off at the P-C school, along with any monetary donations through a Venmo account that has been set up. All of that information can be found below.

Venmo account: @Hingeley1986

Items the family is in need of:

Personal care items/undergarments for young boy, Size 8 pants, size 10/12 tops, size 3 shoes

Personal care items/undergarments for teenage girl, size 2XL shirt and pants and size 10 women’s shoes

Personal care items/undergarments for women, size 31/size 12 pants, XL women’s shirts and 9.5 women’s shoes.

For one of the specific individuals: men’s personal care items/undergarments, size 3XL shirts, 40 x 30 pants, and size 10 men’s shoes.