Lack of water hampers efforts to extinguish log cabin home
PENN TWP — A family of five lost their log home Monday in an early morning fire that required multiple fire departments to use tanker trucks to bring water because the area has no fire hydrants.
No one was injured in the fire that started at 5:20 a.m. at 382 Three Degree Road.
Homeowner Bryon Foster said the family dog woke him up, and he saw smoke filling the house and heard a popping sound.
He said he looked outside and saw the porch on fire, and everybody evacuated safely through the basement. He was home with his wife, Lacie, their three children and his daughter’s boyfriend. He said the home is insured.
“Our biggest obstacle here was water,” said Bill Glace, chief of the Penn Township Volunteer Fire Department.
Numerous fire departments, including one from Allegheny County, used a tanker truck to bring water to the scene from the closest hydrant, which is near the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, Glace said.
Water had to be pumped from Three Degree Road several hundred feet up a steep driveway to firetrucks at the house. Firefighters used a pickup truck to bring supplies from trucks on the street to firefighters.
The fire was under control by around 7 a.m. and extinguished around 9 a.m., Glace said.
Also responding were Middlesex Township, Butler Township, Herman, Saxonburg and Lick Hill volunteer fire departments. The Richland Township Volunteer Department from Allegheny County also responded.
A section of Three Degree Road at the scene reopened shortly after 9:30 a.m.
Family members said the home was built by hand about 30 years ago. The Fosters have lived there since 2020.
The same day, a Natalie Goldscheitter organized a GoFundMe page to help raise money for the Fosters. The page, called “Help The Foster Family-Lost It All In House Fire,” has a $30,000 goal, with nearly $10,000 already raised.
