All residents could do was watch on a windy Mother's Day morning as a five-alarm inferno leapt from rooftop to rooftop of their Whitpain Township townhouses, demolishing nine units and displacing 17 people, fire officials said.
"We were fire spectators until it became our fire," said Gail Keppler, who was standing outside her home in the Steeplechase development on Splitrail Lane in Blue Bell yesterday afternoon.
All the residents were evacuated without injury; most of them planned to spend the night in hotels or with friends or relatives. Two firefighters were treated at the scene for minor injuries, fire officials said.
The scent of burning embers still lingered in the air by midafternoon; charred wooden roofing tiles lay strewn across the ground.
About 150 firefighters spent more than two hours battling the 6:30 a.m. blaze, Whitpain Township Fire Marshal Dave Camarda said.
"The fire had a good hold on the buildings before we were detached," Camarda said. "The fire was already through the roof in one unit."
He said that the residents called 911 immediately but that the fire spread quickly, at least in part because of the wind.
Each time they thought they were making headway on one area, he said, the fire moved to another. Three buildings, each consisting of four units, were involved in the fire. Three of the 12 units were inhabitable.
The National Weather Service reported wind gusts were as high as 20 m.p.h. about 9 a.m. in Blue Bell.
Camarda said that firefighters were trying to determine the fire's origin but that the structures were unsafe to enter yesterday.
Resident Woody vonSeldeneck said he woke to the sound of fire trucks. When he realized the fire was on his street, he woke his wife, Casey. Both went outside to investigate.
"The wind was blowing like crazy," he said, "The fire just jumped from roof to roof."
Neighbors scurried to rescue personal belongings as the fire tore toward their homes. Some were aided by firefighters.
"The nicest Mother's Day present of all was for firefighters to get all the family pictures out," Casey vonSeldeneck said. "I just thought, 'How darling of them.' "
Shirley Moore, 73, who lives next to the vonSeldenecks said she woke because she smelled smoke.
"I looked all over the house," she said. "I never looked outside."
Her roof had been destroyed and was replaced yesterday afternoon by the clear, blue sky. A pot of geraniums still hung over her porch from a partially charred outside beam.
The grandmother of nine stood over a heap of files and family photos that firefighters helped her save from the blaze. Her husband, Bob, also 73, was sitting on the ground nearby talking to his insurance agent on a cell phone. The Moores married 50 years ago.
"We've got to replace 50 years worth of stuff, and it ain't going to happen in our lifetime," she said with a laugh.
Then, Moore paused for a moment and said, "It's just stuff." Looking down at the photographs of her grandchildren, she added, "I thank God every day for them."
Distributed by the Associated Press
