Fire burns through family home in Upper Darby

UPPER DARBY » A second-alarm fire raged through a home in the Penn Pines section of the township Saturday morning as the family who lived there were headed to the shore.

No one was injured in the fire at 600 Maine Ave., although the fast-moving fire has caused the home at Maine and Connecticut streets to be unlivable for the time being.

“Everyone was out of the house,” Upper Darby Mayor Tom Micozzie said. “There was nobody in the house.”

First to respond was Primos-Secane-Westbrook Park Fire Company, followed by Garrettford Drexel Hill, Cardington-Stonehurst, Highland Park and the Upper

Darby fire company.

“All Upper Darby companies were there,” the mayor said, adding that the Bon Air and Springfield fire companies responded to the second alarm.

“There was a heavy fire in the back of the building,” Micozzie said of the home at Connecticut Street and Maine Avenue. “I got there in 10 minutes and they had already hit the second alarm.”

The fire call went out shortly before 9 a.m. for the two-story single family home with two additions.

Micozzie, who said he knows the family, said they were on their way to the shore at the time of the fire.

“They will not be able to get back into the house,” he said, adding that they would be able to stay with family.

In fact, the cause and origin of the fire remains unknown as detectives and marshals have not been able to get into the home.

“We have to stabilize the building before investigators could get in there,” the mayor said. He said the township engineering department were called to help make the structure safe enough so an investigation could be completed.

Micozzie praised the firefighters who responded to the scene.

“We were well-staffed in the township,” he said. “The guys, they did a great job.”

The mayor said he anticipated that the neighbors would assist the family or set up a fund for them.

“It’s a really tight community down there,” he said.