By Jessica Anderson
The York Dispatch
YORK CITY, Pa. — Kristel Groff stood and waited while firefighters attempted to keep fire from spreading to her York City home Monday night.
They were successful. While a vacant unit at 595 W. Princess St. had extensive fire damage in a blaze the started at about 8:30 p.m., Groff’s home sustained only minor smoke damage.
Groff and her three children — ages 18, 14 and 7 — have lived in their West Princess Street home for seven years, she said.
And this is not the first time she has waited to see if her home would survive flames.
Another fire, on Nov. 27, began in that same building, according to York County 911 dispatchers, and almost brought flames to Groff’s home.
During the November fire, Groff said her son first smelled smoke when the vacant unit caught fire.
She was relieved that Monday’s fire didn’t happen when the family had gone to sleep. She said she is concerned about another, more dangerous fire in the future.
“I’m scared to death,” she said.
The cause
York City Fire Chief John Senft said it took crews about an hour to extinguish Monday’s blaze.
One firefighter was injured during the blaze, Senft said. He said the firefighter sustained a second-degree burn to the face, but continued to work at the scene Monday night.
As of Tuesday morning, the blaze remained under investigation, Deputy Chief Steven Buffington said, and no determination was made as to whether the fire was started accidentally or by an arsonist.
The fire started on the back porch of the vacant rowhouse, said Detective Al Clarkson of the York City Police, who are investigating the fire along with state police and York City fire officials.
Suspect squatters
Clarkson said the blaze was caused either accidentally or intentionally, but that is was not caused by faulty wiring or another cause related to the structure.
“It was human hands,” he said.
Clarkson said it’s a possibility that the blaze might have been started intentionally, but he said he did not want to jump conclusions.
As of Monday night, he said, he has gathered a few names of people known in the neighborhood to frequent the vacant home and use drugs.
The home had been previously boarded up but “crackheads break into it in the winter and start fires in there,” to keep warm, he said.
“Sometimes they start the fire,” he said, adding, however, that it would not make sense for the squatters to burn down their temporary shelter.
Clarkson said the vacant home was being boarded up again Monday night.
Clarkson said vacant homes attracting drug users are a common problem in the city.
Mayor at scene
York Mayor Kim Bracey was at the scene Monday night. She said she came out of concern because she heard the call go to second alarm and because the West Princess Resource Center, a neighborhood police office, is also adjacent to the vacant building.
After the fire was extinguished, city personnel removed various items from the center, including a window air conditioner, a floor lamp, a television, packs of printer paper and other supplies. The center, like Groff’s home, had smoke damage.
Bracey said she was unaware of any previous fire calls to the area, but said “we are working with residents to turn things around.”
Although fire officials told Groff that her home sustained only minor smoke damage, Red Cross disaster leader Janet Spence said the family would spend the night elsewhere since utilities would not be turned on Monday night.
York City firefighters responded to the 500 block of West Princess Street Monday night for a fire that started in a vacant building.
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