Father, Son Save Neighbors From PA House Fire

Mark Steidinger was out getting wood from his pile on Wednesday afternoon in Heidelberg Township when he heard a woman cry for help.

Steidinger saw flames coming from the stairs to the only entrance of the home in the 8500 block of Reservoir Road and wasn’t sure if the homeowner was around.

So Steidinger called 9-1-1 and, in an interview with freelance photographer Mike Nester, said the operator told him help was on the way, but asked if he had access to a ladder.

Steidinger, who is 65, ran back to his home, got the ladder and quickly realized that his son, Benjamin, who was inside, could move far faster in the rescue effort. So father called out to son.

“I ran outside,” Benjamin Steidinger told Nester. “He was holding a ladder. I could see the fire across the street over there.

“I ran across the street with the ladder. There was another guy that helped me there. We extended the ladder. I climbed up to their second floor window. They already had a window open. I kind of bashed their screen in and crawled inside. I kind of crawled along the floor to their back bedroom where they told me that the girls were.”

Once there, “I pulled the first lady out and kind of guided her through the house and the smoke to the ladder and got her onto the ladder.

“Then I ran back into the bedroom and I got her baby out. I took her baby out to her and helped her climb down the ladder with her baby and then I went back into the room and grabbed the second younger lady and helped her through the smoke out to the window and then down the ladder.”

Benjamin Steidinger then dashed back down the hall to get the family dog.

“It was fight or flight,” he said. “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to save them.”

Conditions were “extremely smokey”, he said, adding he pulled his sweatshirt over his face to protect himself.

“It was really bad,” he said. “I didn’t think I would make it out, honestly, and I just had to help get them get out. Team effort I guess. If I was going to go … I just had to try, I guess.”

Mark Steidinger was pleased it all worked out. Germansville fire Chief Jay Scheffler said no one was hurt.

“Fortunately he got up there quickly and got in and saved those young ladies and that baby or gosh,” Mark Steidinger said with a pause. “Usually I don’t call 9-1-1, but today was the day I did the right thing.”

As for his son’s heroic efforts, Mark Steidinger choked up for a moment before saying, “I don’t have the words for it. God was with him. He saved that baby and that younger lady.

“Fortunately I wasn’t at work today. Things worked out for them. Boy. Good thing we were here. Neighbors came through today.”

A Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal is investigating the cause of the blaze, Scheffler said. It took about an hour for firefighters from several area departments to get it under control, Scheffler said, and the final truck left about 6 p.m., which was about three and a half hours after the first call.

Tony Rhodin can be reached at [email protected] .

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