LANDMARK GONE
ICONIC CLIFTON HOME DESTROYED BY FLAMES:
CLIFTON HEIGHTS » Donna Ferguson and her son Shane could only watch as flames shot from windows on all sides of their home in Clifton Heights Friday evening. The two had been visiting Donna’s mother in the hospital when the call came that their home was ablaze.
As of Friday night, ruins of the upper stories had partially collapsed atop the stone foundation at their home at 200 S. Penn St. Ferguson, who hadn’t lost her sense of humor, said the home would eventually return to its former glory — but this was another crushing blow as she cares for her ill mother. “This is sad! My life is very sad right now!” Ferguson said, choking up a laugh in lieu of tears.
The multi-alarm blaze had crews from throughout Delaware County responding to the scene, ladders erected high above the third story in an attempt to suppress the flames below. The stone foundation on the first level remained sound, but the upper floors were totally annihilated in little more than an hour.
Two of the Ferguson’s pit bulls, Sinatra and Rasta, waited patiently next door, leashed to a tree in the neighbor Deborah Rimel’s yard. They were docile and a bit confused, but otherwise in good spirits for having been in the house when the fire started.
Ferguson and her son were running errands before returning to the hospital Friday afternoon when a Clifton Heights police officer on patrol saw the plumes of smoke billowing from the second floor rear window.
Clifton Heights Fire Chief Jim Kneass said the local officers entered the home in search of life and came across the dogs in the basement.
“They tried to see how far they could go,” Kneass said. “They got up to the top of the second floor steps and couldn’t go further because of fire conditions.”
Kneass said the police officers retrieved three dogs from the home while a firefighter rescued one cat. He said clutter in the home made difficult the firefighters efforts to work from the inside out.
“We made an interior attack for probably 30 minutes,” Kneass said. “We tried to get it from the inside, but we couldn’t get ahead on it.”
Calling 200 S. Penn St. home since 2015, Ferguson said she had heard stories of neighbors in their youth visiting a candy shop that once occupied the residence.
She said both she and her son had been laid off in the time since buying the home and it’s been difficult to keep up with repairs needed at home.
“We just haven’t had the money to fix it up the way people thought we should,” she said.
With her mother having bouts in and out of the hospital, it has only compounded her levels of stress. When asked if she celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, Ferguson said, “No, I was at the hospital.”
Neighbor Deborah Rimel said every Halloween that the original owner, Viola Facciola, held the best haunted houses in the whole neighborhood. The name Facciola is known in Clifton for once featuring a bakery and a local tavern.
“She gave out her stale candy from the candy shop,” Rimel joked. “But we had to go to that haunted house.”
Rimel said she had glanced out the window Friday and saw nothing unusual, but 15 minutes later she said flames were “flying out the window.”
“Instantly I knew I had to get my kid out of the house,” Rimel said. “I’m thinking that tree’s going to catch fire and the next thing is my house.”
The fire remains under investigation. More than 100 firefighters responded from Yeadon, Upper Darby, Clifton Heights, Collingdale and others. Kneass said one firefighter was taken to Delaware County Memorial Hospital for observation.
Rimel said the loss of the home would affect many of the locals who grew up on the east side of Clifton.
“This is a Clifton icon right here,” she said.