An Indiana County fire chief is crediting a brood of chickens for indirectly saving the life of a man whose house caught fire this morning.
Calling the chickens of the man's son "good smoke detectors," Peter Yacovone, the Creekside Volunteer Fire Company chief, said David Wells, 49, escaped his home on Chambersville Road in Rayne at about 3:30 a.m. after Mr. Wells' son pulled his father from his bed. The son, who lives next door, had been awakened by his cackling chickens.
The fire was under control within two hours.
"Who would've thought chickens would make good smoke detectors," Chief Yacovone said. "If the son hadn't come and got him, we would've been fishing a body out of there."
Chief Yacovone said the fire was electric in nature and started in the hatched garage of the two-story house. The flames spread to the second story and the attic of the home, leaving it standing but "heavily damaged."
The fire department responded with units from Indiana and Plumville, as well as tankers from Coal Run, Clymer and Elderton. Mr. Yacovone said he lost count of the number of firefighters at the scene.
Their efforts were complicated by power lines that crossed the road directly in front of Mr. Wells house. The fire departments split up and covered the house from both sides. There was some delay, Mr. Yacovone said, because firefighters from Coal Run came from a distance.
Flames did not spread to any of the neighboring houses.
"[Mr. Wells] is broken-hearted but he's good. He got out in the nick of freakin' time," Chief Yacovone said.
Lauren Rosenblatt: [email protected]
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