Butler County day care recovering after fire, plans to reopen next week
The Learning Village Early Childhood Development Center is recovering following a vehicle fire on Friday afternoon that spread to the building and destroyed the office.
While there were no reported injuries after everyone inside safely evacuated the Clinton Township day care, the incident created a significant amount of cleanup work.
Owner Melanie Merten said Tuesday that she and her teachers spent the day sanitizing anything that had encountered smoke damage.
“We cleaned every toy, bin and anything else the kids would come in contact with,” she said. “We took care of all of that.”
Meanwhile, more than a dozen members of a fire restoration team were scrubbing walls and ceilings and dealing with the exterior damage.
Merten said one of the more frustrating parts of the effort was discarding a host of resources that were no longer usable.
“We had to throw away all of the food and anything that would come in contact with the children like the diapers,” she said. “That was tough to do because I’m not a wasteful person.”
The incident could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the quick-thinking of Adam Hartwig, who was picking up his daughter when he saw smoke pouring out of the hood of a vehicle.
Hartwig said he ran back inside to alert everyone of the situation before grabbing a fire extinguisher and attempting to put out the flames.
However, he noted that the fire had already burned through the hood, prompting him to call 911 and help conduct one last check of the building to make sure everyone had exited.
Hartwig, who has previously served as a volunteer firefighter in Winfield and Middlesex townships, as well as Marshall Township in Allegheny County, said his actions were all based off instinct.
“I’ve been a firefighter since 2007, so it was just my training kicking in,” he said.
While recalling the events of that day, he praised a relatively new feature in the county that allowed him to livestream the 911 call with dispatchers who provided real-time updates to emergency responders.
“After I got home, I shot (Butler County 911 coordinator) Rob McLafferty a text message and said ‘Hey I don’t know what you guys had to spend on this (the emergency call feature) but it’s awesome and it’s well worth the money,” Hartwig said.
Merten said a demolition crew will remove the charred remnants of the office on Wednesday, followed by building-wide carpet cleaning and fogging later in the week.
She has been in touch with the parents of the 120 enrolled children and expect the day care to resume regular hours in the coming days.
“We’re going to open next week,” she said.
