Bride’s wedding dress saved from flames
Normandy Farm carriage house burns night before wedding
BLUE BELL >> It seems a fire and an ongoing pandemic will not stop 30-year-old Caitlin Kerezsi from getting married.
“We are trying to make the best of it. We keep making jokes. We keep laughing about it. Just trying to stay positive,” Kerezsi said. “I’m feeling a lot better today than I was last night.”
The night before the Delaware County bride-to-be was supposed to walk down the aisle, there was a fire at Normandy Farm Hotel in Blue Bell.
Centre Square Fire Company firefighters first responded around 8:07 p.m., Thursday to reports of a fire alarm at the property located near the intersection of Morris Road and Dekalb Pike.
The incident was later upgraded to a building fire, which prompted further assistance from several area fire agencies, according to Centre Square Fire Company Deputy Chief Bill Messerschmidt. Heavy smoke flames could be seen from the roof of a nine-room carriage house adjacent to the main building.
“It was fortunate for one brideto-be that’s getting married tonight,” Messerschmidt said in an interview Friday morning. “So there was a wedding party staying on the first floor of the carriage
home, and luckily the crews were able to get all their belongings out, including the bride’s wedding dress, safely.”
Kerezsi recalled a fire alarm going off in the lobby of the main building. She then heard sirens and it was when she walked outside with her sister that she noticed the wind, smoke and a “big yellow flame.” It was then she said her “adrenaline took over.”
“I saw one fireman walking out, and his hand was all the way up because he had the long dresses, and he didn’t want them to drag, and I just kind of yelled: ‘Dresses! Dresses!’” Kerezsi said.
“I went running through the parking lot to get them and … the other firemen were looking at me like ‘what?’ I was like, ‘My dresses. You got them!’” she went on to say. “Between the bridal party we had suits in there, there’s dresses, there was just so much, and it was just a sigh of relief.”
While the circumstances leading up to the fire were unclear, the blaze did not spread anywhere else on the property. Messerschmidt confirmed that no one was hurt.
“The firemen were great,” Kerezsi said. “They got it contained, and I’m really thankful and appreciative for them.”
Kerezsi, and her fiance Kevin Pace, both from Springfield in Delaware County, had initially planned a March 1, 2020 wedding at the Blue Bell venue. Due to health and safety concerns associated with what became the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple had to postpone their special day, and rescheduled it roughly one year later.
“I think that was one of the toughest things,” she said. “It’s like no way is this really happening!”
While it was an emotional evening for Kerezsi, Normandy Farm Hotel took to Facebook to update community members on the status of the hotel and plans to continue operations.
“Yesterday I was full of emotion. I was upset,” Kerezsi said. “... I woke up today with a good mindset of ‘I get to get married today,’ and we’re gonna make the best of it, and I’m glad that we can go forward with everything.”