House burns to ground; no one home - Sunbury Daily Item

A Lower Augusta Township couple is homeless after their house burned to the ground early Sunday morning.

Sunbury Fire Chief Russ Wertz said William and Gloria Deitch were away camping at the time the fire broke out in their house at 244 Jews Hollow Road.

Wertz said only the couple primarily lived in the home.

"What we were told by relatives is a couple of sons lived there off and on," the chief said.

The alarm was called in at about 3:15 a.m.

"One of the neighbors got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, she saw the fire and called it in," Wertz said.

But the blaze in the two-story wood-frame home had a good start and firefighters could not save it.

"The house is on the ground, it's leveled, everything burned into the basement," the fire chief said.

The cause of the fire is undetermined, and fire officials may never know what caused it.

Tpr. Kirk Renn, a state police fire marshal out of the Milton barracks, was on the scene later Sunday morning, but there is too much damage to determine a cause.

"No wall is standing," Wertz said. "It's kind of hard to pinpoint."

"It pretty much burned into the basement," Renn said. "It's very difficult. There's difficulty observing any fire intensity or movement patterns."

Renn said, though, the fire still is under investigation.

"I haven't conducted all of my interviews," he said, adding he still has to talk to the homeowners.

Wertz said the Deitches had insurance, and the Red Cross was working with them to find them a place to stay.

In addition to Sunbury firefighters, Lower Augusta and Upper August township, Shamokin Dam, Herndon and Dalmatia sent units, while other companies covered the city.

Middleburg’s Reliance Hose Company was on standby as a rapid intervention team, or RIT, in case any firefighters were trapped.

Wertz said firefighters were on the scene until about 8:30 or 9 a.m.

Email comments to jsylvester@dailyitem.com. Follow Sylvester on Twitter @JoepSylvester.

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