Passerby Alerts Neighbors to Evacuate
One man was killed last week in a house fire in the early morning hours of January 22 on Kendig Road.
Bethel Township crews responded around 12:30 am to find the home fully-involved and battled the blaze defensively from the outside. It was later discovered that 86-year-old Charlie Cox died in the fire.
Crews said Cox appeared to be an extensive collector, with piles of debris stacked inside the home. They were forced to remove the front exterior of the home and bring in a front-end loader to scoop the debris from inside the home, saying that doing so by hand would have “taken weeks.” Crews said massive amounts of old newspapers were stored inside the home and inside the garage.
A passerby noticed all the smoke in the area when the fire first started, and she went door-to-door, alerting neighbors to the blaze so that they could evacuate.
The fire remains under investigation.