'Suspicious' fire levels unoccupied farmhouse
A suspicious fire destroyed a farmhouse late Tuesday night on Hooker Road in Concord Township, authorities said. No one was injured.
The state police fire marshal's unit is investigating, but the cause is not yet known.
Dan Bunyan, chief of the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department, said he deemed the fire suspicious because the house has been vacant for several years and there were no utilities connected to it.
Trooper DuWayne Baird, a deputy fire marshal, concurred after inspecting the charred remains Wednesday.
“I can't rule out it was suspicious,” Baird said.
A neighbor apparently noticed the two-story, wood-frame house engulfed in flames and called 911 shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, fire officials said.
“It was fully involved when we got there,” Bunyan said of the home, which sits behind a large house known by locals as the “Ashby mansion.”
Ashby is the name of the late former owner, reportedly a physician, authorities said. Baird said he believes the property is bank owned.
The March 1, 2019, edition of the Butler County Legal Journal showed the Ashby family heirs received a notice of action in mortgage foreclosure. The outcome of the complaint, filed by Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, was not known.
Both homes are on the same property. The larger house also has been vacant for some time, authorities said. It too has no utilities, and it appears to have been vandalized over time. That house is about 75 feet from the home burned in the fire.
Crews deployed a deck gun and set up a dry hydrant to draw water from a pond on the property using 1,000 feet of hose lines.
A primary concern was preventing the fire from spreading to the larger house, Bunyan said. That house only sustained heat damage with some of the vinyl siding being melted.
It took between an hour and 90 minutes to get the fire out, but there was no saving the smaller house. Baird estimated the damage at $30,000.
“The cause of the fire is undetermined,” Baird said, “due to the extent of the damage.”
About 20 to 25 firefighters battled the blaze. Assisting the West Sunbury VFD were crews firefighters from Unionville, Marion Township and North Washington.
West Sunbury crews returned to their station around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. However, they were called out again shortly before 4 a.m. when the fire rekindled.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call police at 724-284-8100, and ask for Baird.
