By Brock Parker
The York Dispatch
DALLASTOWN, Pa. — The crackling sound of a fire that burned Palace Heffner’s Dallastown home to the ground Sunday night may have saved his life.
Heffner, 53, who has lived at 340 E. Cherry Lane for most of his life, was asleep about 11:30 p.m. when the crackling sound woke him up. He smelled smoke, called 911, and got out of the house.
“I got out what I could,” Heffner said. “If I would not have woken up, the smoke probably would have gotten me.”
By the time firefighters arrived at the 11/2-story home, flames were shooting about 50 feet into the sky from the home, and trees around the house were also on fire, said Darryl Ehrhart, deputy chief of the Rescue Fire Co.
“It was just one big ball of fire,” Ehrhart said.
Ehrhart said firefighters immediately sounded a second alarm on the fire, and the sub-zero wind chills and high winds made it even more difficult to battle the blaze. Hose valves were freezing, breathing equipment for the firefighters was freezing, and the high winds were blowing burning embers from the house into the trees and toward a neighboring business, Ehrhart said.
The flames also severed a live power line that was being blown around by the wind, he said.
By 1 a.m., the fire had burned most of the house to the ground, and Ehrhart said it was a total loss. The fire appears to have started in a chimney and does not appear suspicious, he said.
But Ehrhart said a state police fire marshal will help determine the exact cause of the blaze and a damage estimate.
Huddling in a pickup truck to stay warm while firefighters tried to extinguish the fire, Heffner said he would stay with his cousin Sunday night and that he would call the York County chapter of the American Red Cross Monday. He said he didn’t have insurance for the home.
In addition to Dallastown’s Rescue Fire Co., firefighters from Yoe, Red Lion and Loganville helped fight the fire.
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