Fire Destroys Amish Woman’s Log Home & Thrift Shop; Wood Furnace Blamed (Pennsylvania)
A “fast-moving” fire destroyed an Amish home and the two businesses run out of it Wednesday morning near Meyersdale, Pennsylvania (Somerset County). Thankfully, no one was hurt.
The home belonged to an Amish woman, who ran a thrift shop on the second floor. The loss is the second big blow this poor lady has taken in a matter of months; more on that below.
The two-story log home was on Coke Oven Road in Summit Township. This was a building with multiple Amish businesses in it. Sunny Ridge Saw Shop, a chainsaw dealer, occupied the first floor, with the residence upstairs. More from the report at the Daily American:
Firefighters from Meyersdale and multiple surrounding communities were dispatched at 9:19 a.m. to the structure fire call, which was elevated to a second alarm to bring additional water tankers and manpower to the scene.
“There was a large amount of fire there when we arrived,” Miller said. “The fire was way too far ahead to save anything. It was defensive from the get go.”
Meyersdale Fire Chief Mike Miller told the Tribune-Democrat he could see the fire from his workplace about half a mile away. “It had a big head start on us,” he said. The family living in the building got out safely before crews arrived. Unfortunately, it is a total loss.
Wood Furnace Was The Culprit
Miller told the paper the fire started from the wood furnace. According to the Daily American, the homeowner believed it began around the wood heater on the first floor, since that is where she first saw the flames. Amish families typically heat with wood or coal-burning furnaces, and the threat of fire is ever-present.
Ten fire departments responded to the blaze, including from Grantsville in neighboring Maryland. Crews were on scene for more than five hours, WJAC reports.
With tankers having to haul in water, a local coal company helped out by bringing a 9,000-gallon water truck to the scene, according to the Daily American. Miller thanked the departments that came, calling them “second to none.”
My heart goes out to this woman, who has had a very difficult time this autumn. According to the Daily American, her son was killed in a bulldozer accident in September. Now she’s lost her home and business. The community will rally around her and support her. But what a burden to have put upon you.
This is the Somerset County Amish settlement, which we’ve covered fairly often here, including in a series of posts from my visit there last December. It has around 1,600 members, making it the ninth-largest Amish community in Pennsylvania.
Most of its households are in Pennsylvania, though a church district or two reaches into Garrett County, Maryland, putting it among the Amish settlements that span two states. It is also one of the oldest Amish communities in the country.
Small Amish businesses dot the community, among them Peachey’s Country Store & Bakery and a backroad variety store. I hope this woman will have help restarting her own business, in addition to rebuilding her home; I trust that the members of the community will be on this pronto.
