The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Family safe, pets perish in Enon fire

Staff photo Marshall Gorby A fire, fueled by a gas line, consumes a home at 5811 Hunter Road, Enon, on Saturday, Aug. 14.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Ferguson attempts suicide after being found guilty on all 32 counts
11/21/09
Neighbors still trying  to recover from fatal fire
11/20/09
Churches want end to ‘shooting and killing’
11/20/09
Gun turn-in will include some questions
11/20/09
State jobless rate jumps to 10.5 percent
11/20/09
> More headlines

By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 5:52 PM Monday, August 17, 2009

ENON — Lack of water and a hidden gas line fueled a house fire at 5811 Hunter Road on Saturday, Aug. 15, leaving fire personnel fighting flames more than an hour after they were first called to the scene around 1:30 p.m.

The split-level home, located down a country road with spacious front lawns and no nearby fire hydrants, was fully engulfed by the time Mad River Twp. Fire Department officials arrived on the scene. The home’s owner, Jon Neubauer, had arrived home just as fire officials got to the scene. His wife, Jeannine, arrived about 30 minutes later. No other family members were in the house, but about 14 cats and two dogs were assumed to have perished.

Fire officials broke two basement windows to get to cats visible through the smoke. Eight cats, protesting loudly, were carried out of the house. They were taken to a nearby clinic, Mad River Twp. Fire Chief David Leist said.

The fire started in the garage and quickly jumped across the roofs and throughout the first and second floors, Leist said. Smoke was visible for miles from the site.

With assistance, including water tankers, from Bethel, Springfield, German Twp. and Hustead and Fairborn fire divisions, firefighters were able to get some sections of the fire under control. However flames fueled by the gas line continued to devour the first floor and garage, extending beyond the foundation where the gas line entered the house.

“We have to just let that burn,” he said. “You can’t try to put a (gas fire) out. If you do, it will cause an explosion.”

Share this article