By Cindy Stauffer
The Intelligencer Journal/New Era
LANCASTER, Pa. — A cat is being credited with making three people aware of an early morning house fire Wednesday that severely damaged a Manor Township home.
They escaped unharmed, as did a man who fled his Rapho Township home after a fire broke out there a few hours later.
Firefighters fought the fires in brutally cold conditions, with temperatures that dropped to 10 degrees early in the morning.
Two cats died in the Manor Township fire, which broke out at about 4:45 a.m. at 168 Tracyberg Road in the Perth Hills development, west of Millersville.
The fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, state police Trooper James DeWalt, a fire marshal, said.
The home was equipped with smoke detectors, but the batteries were dead, Blue Rock Commissioner Duane Hagelgans said.
“Luckily, one of the cats was up and moving about and startled one of the occupants,” he said. “That’s how they got up and discovered smoke in the house.”
The home suffered $112,000 in damages, said Keith Eshleman, chief of the East Station of Blue Rock Fire and Rescue. It is not habitable, and the American Red Cross was assisting the home’s residents, Kathleen and Ashley Rinehart and John Sheffler.
The three adults have nine animals, including hamsters and cats. They were able to save all of them, except for the two cats.
Hagelgans said more than 60 firefighters from seven companies battled difficult conditions, including heavy smoke and ice.
The second fire broke out about 8:15 a.m. at 3660 Elizabethtown Road in Rapho Township, northeast of Elizabethtown, near Mastersonville.
A man was home at the time of the fire but got safely out of the house, which property records show is owned by John and Carol Roach.
The fire was caused by a malfunction of a wood stove in the basement, Dan Reif, a firefighter for the Manheim Fire Company, said.
The heat from the stove went through a wall and into a joist, he said.
The recent cold weather is spurring homeowners to fire up their wood stoves, he noted. He urged homeowners to follow local building codes when installing and using one of the stoves.
Damage from the fire was about $5,000, he said, adding the home is inhabitable.
About 20 firefighters from four companies battled the fire, he said.
Copyright 2012 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.