Christmas morning fire displaces family

An online donation fund has been set up to help a Hilltown family that lost its home Christmas morning.

The fire in the 200 block of Hampshire Drive displaced Patti Cage and the other three members of her family.

“Just about everything was lost,” Cage said. “We were able to salvage a couple pieces of clothing. Everything else was lost.”

Firefighters attempted to salvage Christmas gifts and other items, but most of the things could not be saved, Cage said.

“They tried to clean them and washed them a couple times but we can’t get the smell out,” Cage said.

A donation fund to assist the family has been set up at www.summerleachristmasfire.chipin.com.

“My dog barked and that’s what woke me,” Cage said.

Going downstairs, she said, “I heard the smoke alarms going off and I could see the fire glow at the base of the garage door.”

“The garage was totally burned out and the home had extensive smoke and water damage,” Ray Brennan, Sellersville Fire Department’s chief, said. Two vehicles parked outside the garage were also burned in the fire.

The sprinkler system in the house did a good job of keeping the fire from spreading from the attached garage area, Bucks County Fire Marshal Nicholas Rafferty said. Although the rest of the house had sprinklers, the garage did not, he said.

“Had there been a sprinkler in there, the fire probably would have been limited,” Rafferty said.

The fire company was dispatched at 3:03 a.m. Christmas morning, Brennan said.

“The fronts of the vehicles were on fire and the garage was fully involved,” when he arrived, Brennan

said. “It was starting to flame out of the garage and extend up to the second floor” of the two-and-a-half-story twin home.

One firefighter was treated by medical personnel at the scene, Brennan said.

“We think he may have pulled a muscle,” Brennan said.

The Silverdale, Perkasie and Trumbauersville fire companies assisted at the scene, with the nuakertown and Telford departments covering in case of further fires, he said.

“Most of it was knocked down within 15, 20 minutes,” Brennan said of the fire. “We were there about an hour and a half and we had probably about 30 firefighters.”

The other half of the twin building received some smoke damage, but the residents on that side were able to return inside and continue living there after the fire, he said.

“We believe that it was an accidental fire, electrical in nature, associated with a refrigerator,” Rafferty said.

Cage said she and her family, which includes 13-year- old twins, are temporarily living with relatives, but hope to be able to find another home to move to in the Pennridge School District.

The family rented the home in which the fire took place and plan to return to it when that becomes possible, she said.

“They said it’s going to take six or nine months for the repairs,” Cage said.

Having a fire call on Christmas Day isn’t unusual, although it doesn’t happen every year, Brennan said.

“Definitely not how we wanted to spend our Christmas Day, or New Year, for that matter, but at least we all got out and we’re all safe, so we thank God for that,” Cage said. “We’re all OK, so that’s what matters.”