News
Related Photos
-
Craig Urey / For The Daily Item
-
Craig Urey/For The Daily Item
Turkey fryer sparks fire in Hummels Wharf
HUMMELS WHARF — Twenty people were just about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner at the Rivera residence early Thursday evening when four fire trucks crashed the party.
The garage area of the home of Robin Welch and Carlos Rivera at 99 Creek Road was ablaze when they rushed in.
It was about 5 p.m. Rivera had been cooking one turkey upstairs in the regular oven and one in the garage by a propane-fueled deep fat fryer method.
He said he checked on the turkey in the garage, and everything was fine, and he went back upstairs into the kitchen, which was directly above the garage.
“It wasn’t 30 seconds later,” he said, “I saw smoke coming up by the window.”
Hummels Wharf Fire Chief Jeff Buckley said the garage was fully involved when they arrived, with flames coming out of both garage doors.
Selinsgrove and Shamokin Dam fire trucks also responded as well as a tanker truck from Kreamer. Hummels Wharf EMT crews also arrived on the scene.
The Snyder County Red Cross came to assist.
Buckley said firefighters used 250 gallons of compressed air foam to put out the fire. No one was injured, but one firefighter had a hot ember go down his neck. “It could have been a really major fire,” he said. “But we got here fast.”
Welch said the upstairs was damaged by smoke, “but that’s all, thank God.”
Her Thanksgiving plans were less fortunate.
Although there were hams and the other turkey upstairs, it was a blackened mess. Her daughter and sisters and their children all stood outside, not knowing when they would get to eat. Welch looked defeated.
She said one of the female EMTs looked down into the kettle after the fire was out.
“ ‘At least your turkey’s done,’ she said. I had to laugh,” Welch said.
Hummels Wharf Deputy Chief John Grove said the grease virtually exploded outward, igniting the ceiling and walls of the garage and anything else that would burn.
Consensus was that that type of cooking must be done outside under a watchful eye.
Welch was asked if her husband read the directions on the apparatus.
“He’s a man,” she said.
- News
-
-
Boy Scouts rededicate monument
Cody Kremser said the easiest part of the Boy Scout oath to live up to is the part about helping other people at all times.
“I’m always there for my friends and family,” said the 15-year-old Sunbury resident and Boy Scout. -
Catawissa Avenue /Mile Hill Road resurfacing project resumes Wednesday
Eastern Industries Inc., of Winfield,will begin paving again on State Route 4006 (Catawissa Avenue/Mile Hill Road) in Northumberland County on Wednesday.
-
Route 225 resurfacing project starts Tuesday
Eastern Industries Inc., of Winfield, will start work on a 3.4-mile resurfacing project along a section of Route 225 in Northumberland County on Tuesday.
-
Fire destroyed Blue Hill resort
Riding on the coattails of the fame and glory the City Hotel gained after Thomas Edison’s successful electrical experiment in 1883, the owners, the enterprising Drumheller brothers, decided to build another hotel a few years later.
-
Princess contestants tell why they love Milton
By week’s end, one of 10 girls will be named the Milton Harvest Festival Princess. We asked each girl where she would take a visitor in Milton, and why.
-
Question of the week for politicians
We asked Valley candidates for the state and U.S. House: “What specific expenses that your predecessor allowed and that you would have the personal authority to control if elected — staff size, travel, salary, per diem or other perks — would you decline to accept and what would that save the taxpayers over your term in office?”
-
Report: 20% of teens suffer hearing loss
Hearing loss among teenagers is on the upswing, according to research just published in the “Journal of the American Medical Association.”
-
Job agency to meet Penn Lyon workers
Let’s say you are a carpenter working for a modular home company, married and a father of two, living in the Selinsgrove area.
-
Valley church to hold forum on mosque
The 19 Muslims who hijacked four jets, flying two of them into the World Trade Center in New York, a third into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in Shanksville, created one thing: virulent animosity toward Islam among some Americans.
-
Troopers steal win
It was the last inning, with two out and the bases loaded. His team trailed by one run when state police trooper Brent Bobb stepped to the plate.
- More News Headlines
-
