By Lou Michel
The Buffalo News
TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Nancy Mertz’s grandsons did what they could to save her from perishing in a Town of Tonawanda house fire fueled by the explosion of oxygen tanks the ailing woman depended on to help her breathe.
At about 3 a.m. Wednesday, the two young teenagers, who were spending the night, awoke to find their 57-year-old beloved grandmother engulfed in flames, relatives said.
“The boys got cans of water and were trying to put out the fire on their grandmother, but they were overcome by smoke and had to get out of the house,” said John O’Connor, who is engaged to the boys’ mother.
But before the teens left the house, O’Connor said, they made sure their grandfather, who was in a second-floor bedroom, had gotten out safely.
Fourteen-year-old Dominic and 15-year-old Michael Paonessa were being hailed as heroes by their mother and other family members who live in five separate houses in the Tonawanda Street area where the blaze occurred, not far from the Buffalo border.
Police and fire officials were continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze late Wednesday, but relatives say whatever started the fire ended up igniting three or four oxygen tanks.
Mertz, who was a smoker, received oxygen because of her frail health. Whether smoking played a role in the blaze was not known, authorities said.
The damage to the modest, two-story, yellow vinyl-sided house was estimated at $100,000. Town Building Department officials ordered an emergency demolition of the structure.
“The first crews in were met with extreme smoke and fire,” said Kenilworth Volunteer Fire Company Chief Thomas W. Yager. “Within an hour, we had most of the fire down, but we had an extensive overhaul, checking walls and the roof for any extension of the fire.”
A niece who lives across the street from Nancy and Raymond Mertz said she awoke at 3 a.m., looked out her front window and noticed light in the side rear window of her aunt’s first-floor bedroom.
“At first I thought it was a light in her bedroom and she was still awake. Then I realized it was flames, and I called 911,” said Sandy Zasowski, who lives in the 1200 block of Tonawanda Street, between Roswell and Riverdale avenues, a few blocks north of Riverside Park.
When Zasowski came outside, she said, Raymond Mertz was emerging from the house along with the grandsons, whose hair was singed by the flames.
“My young cousins got out of the house 20 seconds ahead of the explosions. It sounded like three or four bangs,” Zasowski said.
Michael and Dominic, who live next door with their mother, Lisa Paonessa, and O’Connor, ran to them for help.
“I put a shirt over my face and tried to get in but was overcome,” a distraught O’Connor said. “I went to the back window and ripped out the air conditioner and was going to use that as a step to climb inside and get Nancy, but the flames shot in my face.”
Paonessa, who has been with O’Connor for the last decade and has a 3-year-old daughter, Jacklin, with him, praised the brave actions of her teenage sons.
“They did everything they could. I’m proud of them. Thank God they got out all right,” said Paonessa, the only child of Nancy and Raymond Mertz.
In the bright sunshine of Wednesday morning, weeping and shocked relatives, young and old, of Nancy Mertz, watched from about 25 feet away as fire investigators sifted through the ruins of the house at 1212 Tonawanda St.
They recalled Nancy Mertz as a woman who had been ill for years with congestive heart and kidney failure but never lost her devotion to her family.
And though she often used a wheelchair, she would spend time with her grandchildren and help in the gardening around her home.
“My aunt loved to play with Jacklin. She’d give her rides on the wheelchair lift in front of the house,” said Sheila Mertz.
In addition to Kenilworth, the town’s four other volunteer fire companies, the Village of Kenmore volunteer fire company and volunteer fire companies from Grand Island and the City of Tonawanda also responded.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by C. Mertz & Son Funeral Home, Town of Tonawanda.
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