Donora home destroyed by raging fire

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

A house in Donora that caught on fire Saturday was demolished over the weekend, according to Donora Mayor Jim McDonough.

The fire was reported at the Waddell Avenue home around 7 a.m. 

“I believe it was occupied, but the gentleman was at work and no one was there,” McDonough said. “I talked to my fire chief and when they got there, it was too unsafe to put anyone in there.”

McDonough said he saw the column of smoke as he was heading to work Saturday morning and knew it wasn’t good. He commended the fire department for keeping the flames from affecting neighboring homes.

“He did a good job keeping anyone from harm’s way and keeping it from spreading to the surrounding properties,” McDonough said of fire Chief Patsy Vince.

Vince is also the borough’s safety officer and deemed the burned structure to be a safety hazard to the community, McDonough said. The street department was called to the scene Saturday afternoon to demolish the remnant of the structure.

“We can’t have structures like that for someone else to get hurt in, so we took it down immediately. I’m proud of them all, the street department came out on a day off and took it down, putting it into safe mode,” McDonough said. “My main concern was the safety of the firefighters on the scene and getting the structure down so it was safe.”

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