The fire at 3172 Reeder Road was discovered about 3:40 a.m. when family members awoke to an odor of smoke, Montoursville Deputy Fire Chief Tyler Schramm said.

“When they opened the dining room door, they were faced with thick, dark smoke that was coming from the area of the garage,” Schramm said.

The three residents, whose names were not released, “fled the house through a back door. They were very fortunate (to escape in time),” he said, adding that this fire could have had a very tragic outcome. There was no evidence of working smoke alarms in the home, he said.

“When family members got outside, they saw that a large amount of fire had spread from the garage to the home’s exterior,” Schramm said. One of the family members called 911.

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Even before reaching the scene, Schramm ordered a second alarm after a responding firefighter who lives near the scene reported seeing heavy fire coming from the property.

Firefighters on Montoursville’s tanker truck, who were the first on the scene, used a deck gun on the apparatus to blast the flames with a large powerful volume of water for a minute or two, Schramm explained.

“This knocked down the bulk of the fire so that other firefighters could enter the house with their hoses. Two separate crews entered through the back of the house and were successful in preventing the fire from reaching the kitchen, an office and at least one bedroom,” Schramm said. One of the residents was treated at the scene for minor smoke inhalation.

Besides Montoursville, firefighters from the city, Eldred, Loyalsock, Hepburn, Plunketts Creek, Woodward and Old Lycoming Townships along with Pennsdale, Picture Rocks, Jersey Shore Muncy Area, DuBoistown, Nisbet and Hughesville all responded.

The cause the fire was under investigation by a state police fire marshal.

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Schramm said that even though this fire was just three miles from a blaze that leveled the barn at the Thomas Reeder farm on Reeder Road on Jan. 21, there is no evidence at this point that leads investigators to believe the the two fires are at all related. Due to the destruction of the barn, that fire will remain undetermined, he said.

Damage in Saturday’s fire was in excess of $100,000, Schramm said. During the blaze, firefighters from Lock Haven stood by at the Woodward Township firehouse on Route 220 as did a crew from Warrior Run Area

at Montoursville’s Broad Street station.

In the last five weeks, there have been more than half a dozen structure fires in the region.

MATTHEW COURTER/Sun-Gazette

MATTHEW COURTER/Sun-Gazette

MATTHEW COURTER/Sun-Gazette