Amish Home Burns Down In Fire Caused By “Unattended Cooking”
This comes to us from the Amish community in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, home to a sizeable Amish population. Fortunately, no one was hurt in a fire this morning which – by looking at the photos here – essentially destroyed an Amish family’s home.
The report from WGAL fills in some details:
Crews were called to the scene of a house fire in Dauphin County around 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
According to dispatch, the fire was in the area of Colebrook and Witmer Roads in Conewago Township.
The fire was marked under control after around two hours.
“Unattended cooking” leaves something to the imagination but I’d hazard to say it’s something that goes on pretty often in Amish homes.
An Amish housewife is apt to have multiple dishes cooking at once along with something in the oven. Perhaps grease or something of that nature was involved.
If the person attending the cooking gets called outside to help with a yard or farm chore for a bit, or distracted by a baby’s needs, for example, a hot stove can easily be left unattended for moments, or minutes.
Thank goodness no one was hurt, and good work by the local fire crews as usual. But a loss like this can be traumatic, to state the obvious.
The “good news” for this family is that the Amish are better-equipped to deal with these sorts of disasters than most, though – whether it comes to emotional and financial support from the church community, or help in rebuilding.
And in fact, the report states that “The Amish community is already planning to rebuild the home.” That is basically standard procedure when it comes to the Amish.
The Amish community in Dauphin County dates back to 1978. It is a sister settlement of the Lancaster County community, which it neighbors. Currently, close to 2,000 Amish people live there, making it one of the larger Lancaster spin-off communities.
The Amish are no stranger to house and barn fires, which are sometimes caused by overheated equipment, or by the lighting or heating sources used in some Amish homes.
Amish Home Fire
Oh, no! How truly sad/traumatic a thing to have to go through. But as you stated, they are better equipped for this sort of thing due to their belief in Christian charity . . . including springing into action early on to help get neighbors on their feet as soon as can be. Thank the good Lord nobody was hurt. Kudos to the firefighters in knocking this thing down. I’m sure the family is already looking to the future/looking forward to getting back to the business of “living”. Thanks, Erik, for telling us of this. Prayers to all those involved.