No one injured when West Deer home burns for second time

For the second time, Ed Patrick lost his childhood home to a fire.

The one-story, wood-frame house at 437 Magnolia Drive in West Deer caught fire in 1982. His dad rebuilt it.

It caught fire again on Sunday. Fire officials say it’s a total loss.

“There ain’t nothing I can tell you (about the fire),” Patrick told the Tribune-Review on Monday. “It burnt. There is no more cooking at Ed’s house.”

Patrick, 47, said he lives in Rochester, Beaver County, but he grew up in the West Deer house. He just recently celebrated a birthday.

“This is a hell of a birthday gift,” he said. “If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have none at all.”

The fire was reported around 5:30 p.m. No one was injured, but the house was destroyed, according to Luke Raynovich, chief of West Deer Volunteer Fire Department #1.

“The whole roof and the first floor was all burned off,” Raynovich said.

Patrick said he has no idea what happened, and was asleep when the fire broke out.

He awoke to his neighbor and friend banging on his door.

That friend, Mark Ostrowski, was coming home from hunting when he noticed smoke coming from the area around Patrick’s house.

He drove up to the house, and saw that the back of the house and the roof was on fire.

Ostrowski called his wife, Michelle, and told her to call 911. He ran to the front door and pounded on it until Patrick woke up and came outside.

Ostrowski said the house burned within 15 minutes.

“It went real fast,” he said.

Raynovich said when firefighters arrived on the scene, the house was engulfed in flames.

It took about an hour to get the fire under control.

“There was a power line down in the back of the house,” Raynovich said. “It was the main feed going to the house. When it caught on fire, it must have burned off, and it was in the backyard arcing.”

“We couldn’t really get around to that side, and that’s where the bulk of the fire was,” Raynovich said. “We had to work around that, and wait for the power company to de-energize that line so that we could put most of the fire out.”

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s Office was called to investigate the cause of the blaze. It was ruled accidental and electrical related, said Matt Brown, Allegheny County chief of emergency services and fire marshal.

Michelle Ostrowski started a GoFundMe account to help Patrick. As of Monday night, it had raised more than $200 of its $10,000 goal.

“My husband Mark has been friend(s) with Ed for about 40 (years) and yesterday Ed lost his home to a fire,” the GoFundMe says. “Ed is always willing to help anyone at anytime. Now he needs help. He is going to need to rent dumpsters to tear down his house. He also will need clothes and other personal items.”

Mark Ostrowski said Patrick never had much, but was always there to help everyone else out.

“The kid has nothing at all. He had no insurance on the house,” Mark Ostrowski said. “That’s why we’re trying to help him now, get him on his feet.”