An early morning fire Thursday that first appeared to a neighbor as "a small spark" very quickly engulfed a two-story house on Germania Street in the city, killing the homeowner, whose body was found on the floor in the front living room.
Linda Mayer, 58, of 215 Germania St. perished in the fire that broke out about 4:45 a.m., according to Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. She lived alone in the house.
The cause of the fire was electrical in nature, city Fire Chief C. Dean Heinbach said.
Jim Kriner, a trash collector who was making his rounds in the neighborhood, was the first to call 911.
"Smoke was pouring from under the eaves when I approached Germania and Henrietta streets. There was no fire," said Kriner, owner of Kriner's Disposal Service.
"The windows in the house were all black. When I got off the phone with 911, the whole house went up in a matter of minutes," Kriner said.
Neighbor Kalyn Starr, said she and her boyfriend first "just saw a small spark and then we saw the flames coming up through the windows," Starr said. Her boyfriend also called 911.
"Almost instantaneously, the whole first floor was on fire. The fire then wound its way up to the roof," said Starr, a Pennsylvania College of Technology student.
"We were just astounded that the fire spread so fast," Starr said.
Responding from his home less then two blocks away, Assistant Fire Chief Tom Swigart saw the smoke that was pouring from the house.
When he turned onto Germania Street, the front of the house was a ball of fire.
"The flames were blowing across the alley, about 15 feet, and the second-floor windows blew out," Swigart said.
No one knew that Mayer was in the house. Even if they did, there would not have been any way to reach her, Heinbach and Swigart said.
Swigart said he immediately ordered a second alarm, bringing an additional 10 city firefighters along with more equipment and manpower from Loyalsock Township, Montoursville and Montgomery.
"We advanced hoses into the house at the very beginning, but we had to pull out. The integrity of the house got really bad. Conditions deteriorated in a hurry," Heinbach said.
Heinbach said there was no way to determine how long the fire had been burning before it was discovered. However, Kriner said that he detected "an odor of thick smoke in the neighborhood at least 20 minutes" before coming upon the blaze.
"I didn't know where the smoke odor was coming from," Kriner said.
Firefighters from DuBoistown as well as Woodward and Old Lycoming townships also were dispatched to the scene.
After the bulk of the fire was knocked down, firefighters could see a woman inside, but there was no way to reach her safely.
Kiessling was dispatched to the scene, but he could not enter the home for at least two hours because there was fear that sections of the structure could collapse at any moment.
"We're taking precautions to get the house shored up. We don't want to have a collapse. If we have a collapse, it's going to make it all the more difficult to recover (the body)."
Once it was deemed safe to enter the property, Mayer's body was carried out of the house. Kiessling said the woman died of smoke inhalation and traumatic burn injuries.
She was found less than two feet from a window on the east side of the house.
Mayer's brother, Dennis Shaffer, a trash collector, was making his rounds in the Cogan Station area when he heard a disturbing news report on the radio.
"They gave the address as 215 Germania St. I knew it was Linda's address. The report said the house was 'engulfed in flames.' I feared she was in there," Shaffer, 60, of Trout Run told a reporter at the scene.
He immediately responded to the fire after hearing the news report.
Mayer's son, Glen, was at work at the Weis warehouse in Milton when he learned from a co-worker that there was a fire at his mother's home.
The co-worker, who lives just a few blocks from Germania Street, had seen the fire trucks working at the scene, but wasn't sure it was Mayer's home. When the man arrived at the warehouse, his wife sent a text message that the house on fire was indeed the one where Glen's mother lived.
"My mind is just blank. The last I saw her was on Tuesday. She came to the house," and was playing a video game system, the 36-year-old Hughesville man said as he watched firefighters battle the fire.
"She was loving and caring. She did anything that I needed her to do for me," the son said.
The woman cherished her grandchildren, he added.
"The fire originated in a concealed space between the basement and first-floor wooden joists, where it is believed that the electrical wiring failed," Heinbach said.
"Investigators believe that the fire's concealment played a significant role in the extremely rapid spread of the fire. This along with the highly flammable exterior asphalt shingle coverings, and the lack of smoke detectors made any escape attempts very difficult," Heinbach said.
"Had she had working smoke alarms, it's very likely she would have survived," he added.
"Linda was a nice woman," Starr said.
