Wednesday, December 31, 2003
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003 |
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50th birthday party dampened by fire By JOHN MUNFORD Sylvia Leary didn’t plan to spend the afternoon of her 50th birthday outside her home, watching firefighters punch holes through her roof to extinguish a blaze in her attic. But the Leary family wasn’t fazed much by the event. “What do I do on my 50th birthday?” Leary said after she was reminded that she won’t forget this birthday. Her husband Michael joked, “Just say it was the candles from her birthday cake.” The family had noticed a sweet odor of burning hardwood up to two hours before daughter Cara said she had heard popping noises from upstairs in the family’s home on Barstone Place. Michael Leary went to the attic and confirmed the fire. “I took the fire extinguisher and tried to hit it, but the flames just laughed at me, of course,” he said. He then called the professionals via 911 and the family evacuated the house. It took just two minutes for the first firefighters to arrive on the scene, Michael Leary added. “Nobody should complain about taxes in Fayette County,” Leary reasoned. “It’s ridiculous because look at the service you get.” It took firefighters 20 minutes to knock down the flames, said Assistant Fire Chief Ed Eiswerth. Officials determined the probable cause of the fire was electrical and it started in the attic area, Eiswerth said. The fire damage was limited to the roof, attic and crawl-space area, but some bedrooms and a study below received some smoke and water damage, Eiswerth said. Fire crews also used “salvage covers” to try and protect some of the items in the bedrooms and study, Eiswerth added.
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