MANSFIELD - A house fire at the end of a long, remote road on a hill above Mansfield sent three people to Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, N.Y., Tuesday afternoon.
According to Mansfield Fire Department Chief Jim Welch, the open format A-frame house was a total loss because of the remoteness of the location, the difficulty in reaching it and the time it took to set up a staging area because there was no water supply. Welch is unsure whether the home was insured.
The fire was called in around 1:30 p.m. and when firefighters arrived at the Barbara Gerhardt family home, 1008 Korb Road, just north of Mansfield in Richmond Township, it was fully involved, Welch said.
Article Photos
LONNIE FROST/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
Firefighters assess the damage after a fire destroyed the home of Barbara Gerhardt at 1008 Korb Road, north of Mansfield, Tuesday.
The 68-year-old homeowner and her two adult children, Timothy and Sherry, had exited the structure, but were covered with soot, Welch said.
All three were sent via ambulance to Arnot-Ogden for treatment of first and second degree burns to their hands, faces and heads, and smoke inhalation, where only Timothy was listed as being in good condition Wednesday afternoon. The other two were not listed as being patients at the hospital.
Welch said that though the fire is under investigation by the state police fire marshal, he was told it started in the area of the couch in the living room.
About 35 firefighters from Mansfield, Blossburg, Lawrenceville, Tioga and Wellsboro responded to the blaze, about a mile and a half from the Kellytown Road on a private road.
"The narrowness and poor condition of the road limited the number of trucks that could come through at a time," he said. "We had some that walked from the staging area at the Kellytown Road intersection and people were shuttling firefighters in pickup trucks to the scene, waiting for one tanker to empty. We had to actually back a tanker up the road after getting water out of a hydrant at the Mansfield Plaza, about three miles from the burning house."
