Pa. House Fire Kills 4
Repost
Pa. House Fire Kills 4
By MEKI COX
LEVITTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Flames swept through the first floor of a suburban
Philadelphia home, claiming lives from three generations of a family - a
4-year-old girl, her mother and her grandparents.
A neighbor managed to get young Kacie Moore out of the burning home on
Sunday
morning, but attempts to revive her failed, authorities said.
The bodies of the girl's mother, Colleen Connor, 28, and the toddler's
grandparents, Dale Connor, 51, and Donald Connor, 45, were found
throughout the
house in the Fall Township development. No one else was inside.
Authorities said they found no evidence of any working smoke detectors
in the
home. An official cause of the blaze had not been determined, but
Levittown
fire officials said faulty wiring in a bathroom light switch may be to
blame.
``It was a scary thing to wake up to this morning,'' neighbor Mark
Liebel, 37,
said Sunday as he fetched tools to install newly purchased smoke alarms
for his
home. ``I don't want the same thing to happen to my family.''
Liebel said his barking dog woke him at 7 a.m. He and other neighbors
broke
windows on the Connors' flaming house before trying to fight the fire by
throwing snow in through the shattered glass.
But the house was totally engulfed in smoke, he said. After another
neighbor
was able to pull the child from the house, Liebel said his wife, Lisa,
tried to
resuscitate the girl.
``It's sad that all we did didn't help anyone,'' he said.
Neighbors said the Connors had lived in the house for at least 20 years
and
that the girl's mother grew up there.
On Sunday evening, the home's roof was boarded and soot covered the
ground, and
children's toys and Christmas decorations remained in the yard.
AP-NY-01-24-00
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The following appears courtesy of the 1/24/00 online edition of The
Bucks
county Courier Times newspaper:
House blaze kills 4
There were no smoke detectors in the house where grandparents, their
daughter
and granddaughter perished.
By GEORGE MATTAR
Courier Times
Yesterday morning's eerily quiet cold was shattered in a Falls
neighborhood as
residents tried frantically to rescue four people from their burning
home.
Despite their efforts, the family members, including a 4-year-old girl,
died.
Neighbors broke windows with baseball bats in an attempt to rouse the
occupants
of the Nightingale Lane home in the North Park section. One man even
dived
through a window and pulled the toddler out of the burning structure.
Pronounced dead by Bucks County Deputy Coroner Joe McGhee were Dale
Connor, 51;
her husband, Don, 45; their daughter, Colleen, 27; and her daughter,
Kacie
Moore, 4. McGhee pronounced Don and Dale Connor dead at the scene.
All four died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation, said
Bucks
County Coroner Dr. Joseph Campbell.
The fire possibly was sparked by a faulty light switch in a downstairs
bathroom, said a shaken Falls Fire Marshal Ray Forestal. He also said
the blaze
had smoldered for some time.
It was shortly after 7 a.m. when neighbor Jack Feehan of the 200 block
of North
Park Drive realized the house was on the fire. Feehan's house is behind
the
Connor home.
"(Feehan) tried to get in the house, but was beaten back by the
flames,'' said
Falls Officer Robert Bray.
After unsuccessfully trying to get into the burning house, Feehan ran
over to
the house next to the Connors' and woke up Tim Stockton. Another
resident, Jack
Carter, roused his neighbor, Ken Altmiller.
"My husband took a baseball bat and started breaking out the windows,
trying to
wake them up. It was horrible,'' said his wife, Karol Altmiller, who
called
911.
She said her husband was too distraught to talk to reporters.
Not hearing anyone in the house, neighbor Matt Sozio then leaped through
a
first-floor bedroom window and pulled Kacie out of the burning house.
"He dived right through the window and got cut really bad,'' said Bray,
pointing to a small trail of blood beneath the bedroom window.
Sozio reportedly received 60 stitches to one of his legs. That could not
be
confirmed last night.
It is not clear if Sozio performed CPR on Kacie, but two neighbors were
doing
so when Falls Officer Kevin Gribbon pulled up.
Gribbon took over before the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad
arrived,
along with the Yardley-Makefield Emergency Unit and Penndel-Middletown
Emergency Squad, said Mike Moretti, chief of the Levitttown-Fairless
Hills
Rescue Squad.
Levittown Fire Co. No. 1 Chief Rick Hoagland Jr. was the first
firefighter to
arrive.
"I knew on the way that it could be bad. The dispatcher told me there
was
possible entrapment. There was heavy smoke pouring from the second story
and
fire burning through the roof. I saw neighbors doing CPR on a little
girl," he
said.
"Firefighters then went in the house and pulled the other three people
out. It
was a very tragic situation for all of us.''
The fire was placed under control in 45 minutes, Hoagland said.
Don Connor was found on his back in the first-floor bathroom, where the
fire
started. His wife was found in the living room. Colleen Connor was found
halfway into a bedroom closet in the same room with her daughter, fire
officials said.
The Connors' house sustained heavy fire damage to the left side, facing
Nightingale Lane.
Most neighbors were too distraught to talk about the tragedy. But one,
Vince
Taurino of North Park Drive, said the men who tried to rouse the Connors
were
very upset.
"They feel as though they didn't do enough. They thought they could have
done
more. They did all they could and that's what I told them,'' Taurino
said.
"It's horrible. My wife woke me up and told me there were ambulances and
fire
trucks on Nightingale Lane. They were great neighbors. I just can't
believe
what happened.''
Don Connor was a steelworker at USX Fairless Works and Dale was a
homemaker.
They have at least one other son, Donald, who lives in the nearby
Elderberry
Pond section of Falls.
One volunteer firefighter, Bob Hedden of the Falls Fire Co., suffered a
burn to
the back of his neck and was treated. Levittown Fire Co. No. 1 was
assisted by
the Fairless Hills, Falls and Tullytown companies.
Another volunteer firefighter stood outside and took a breather.
"I can't believe there weren't any smoke detectors in the house. What is
it
going to take to make people realize they save lives? There are four
bodies
now, including that little girl, who died today. A smoke detector would
have
alerted them. They would have at least had a chance to get out.''
Forestal, the Falls fire marshal, said that firefighters did not find a
single
smoke detector inside the house.
Hoagland said his fire company has a smoke detector hot line,
215-945-3050.
"If you can't afford one, we will give you one and install it, too.
These types
of tragedies are horrible. Nothing good comes out of things like this,''
the
fire chief said.
Monday, January 24, 2000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Would-be rescuers 'gave it their all'
Family members and friends banded together yesterday after their bravery
failed
to save four people from a fire.
By ELIZABETH FISHER
Courier Times
It was a morning of heroes and tragedy on Nightingale Lane yesterday as
neighbors and firefighters worked in vain to save a mother, her child
and her
parents.
The victims, Dale Connor, 51; her husband, Donald, 45; their daughter,
Colleen,
27, and Colleen's daughter, Kacie Moore, 4, will never know how
desperately
their Falls neighbors worked to save them. All four died in the fire.
The quiet of the snowy Sunday morning was shattered for Ken Altmiller
when
neighbor Jack Carter banged on his door to tell him that the home at 77
Nightingale Lane in the North Park section of Levittown was on fire,
said Ken's
wife, Karol.
"I called 911, then we ran across the street," Karol Altmiller said. "We
started running and screaming around the house and banging on windows."
Finally, she said, her husband broke windows with a baseball bat.
Another man,
Matt Sozio, who lives around the corner, suffered a deep cut in his leg
while
climbing through a bedroom window.
Sozio managed to get out of the house with Kacie. He later required 60
stitches
to close the cut.
It was another resident, Jack Feehan, of North Park Drive, who
discovered the
fire and tried unsuccessfully to get into the Connor home. He was driven
back
by the intense heat and flames, said a fire official.
When firefighters arrived minutes after the call came in, another
Nightingale
Lane resident was performing CPR on Kacie on the front lawn of her home.
Just hours after the fire was brought under control, about 15 members of
the
victims' family and their friends stood in the street, clinging to each
other
and sobbing. Some appeared to be in shock as they watched firefighters
and
police officials enter the house to investigate.
The Connors' son, Donald Connor III, who lives in the Elderberry section
of
Falls, adjacent to North Park, became hysterical when he arrived.
"I've lost my whole family," he wailed as rescue workers tried to
comfort him.
Relatives formed a tight circle, talking only to fire officials and to
each
other. Most neighbors, many of whom knew the family well, were too upset
to
talk yesterday.
One man was crying as he walked slowly toward the house.
"I work with the guy," he said of victim Don Connor. "This is such a
shame."
Falls police Chief Arnie Conoline, who spent most of yesterday at the
scene,
said he was moved by the bravery of the would-be rescuers.
"Everybody - the police and fire personnel and the neighbors - came to
assist,"
Conoline said. "They gave it their all."
Yesterday's events mirrored another tragedy that occurred 15 months ago
in
Bristol Township when four people died in a fire in the Red Cedar Hill
section
of Levittown.
In the early hours of Oct. 16, fire raced through the home of William
Hughes,
of Redbrook Lane.
Hughes and his son, Jason, 17, and a friend, Jason Schrader, also 17,
managed
to escape. But Hughes' wife, Karen, 41, and the couple's three
daughters,
Caroline, 21, Stephanie, 12, and Kimberly, 10, were killed.
Fire officials determined at the time that the fire started in the
living room
of the two-story home when sparks from a heater possibly ignited a
nearby sofa.
Monday, January 24, 2000
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 1/24/00 online edition of The
Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper:
Bucks fire kills 4 in a family
Three generations of relatives died in the blaze in Falls Township,
which
officials blamed on faulty wiring.
By Lewis Kamb
INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
FALLS TOWNSHIP - When Matthew Sozio looked outside early yesterday
morning and
saw smoke and flames pouring out of the neighbors' house, police said,
he
didn't have time to think.
He just reacted.
Sozio ran to the home and burst in, shouting to members of the Connor
family.
No one answered. But he did find Kacie Moore, 4, unconscious on the
first
floor.
By then, Ken Altmiller, Tim Stockton and other neighbors had arrived.
Altmiller
stood in front of the house with a baseball bat, slugging at a window.
Sozio
carried Kacie to him, passing her through the window, police said.
Altmiller placed Kacie on the snow-covered front lawn and tried to
revive her,
waiting for rescue workers to arrive at the beige-and-brown rancher on
Nightingale Lane in Levittown's North Park section.
Emergency personnel were there within minutes. But there wasn't much
they could
do for Kacie, or her mother, or her grandparents - except pray.
The four family members, spanning three generations, perished in the
fire,
which broke out about 7 a.m.
Authorities identified them as Dale and Donald Connor Jr., both 50;
their
daughter, Colleen Connor, 27; and Colleen's daughter, Kacie Moore.
Fire investigators said faulty wiring in the light switch of a
first-floor
bathroom apparently sparked the blaze that spread through the home,
trapping
everyone inside.
They said no smoke detectors were in the house.
The older couple apparently were trapped in an upstairs bedroom when the
fire
broke out. Firefighters found their bodies in the bedroom after dousing
the
blaze, fire officials said.
Neighbors eventually pulled Colleen Connor, unconscious, from the house.
She
and Kacie were taken to Frankford Hospital-Bucks County. Both were
pronounced
dead - apparently from smoke inhalation - shortly after arriving at the
hospital, fire officials said.
"The neighbors saw the fire and ran over there to try to save them,"
said Chief
Michael Moretti of the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad. "They were
in the
front yard doing CPR on the little girl when we arrived."
Sozio declined to comment about his rescue effort yesterday.
Late into the afternoon yesterday, local and state fire investigators
raked
through melted plastic toys, smoldering clothes, and other debris strewn
across
the frozen ground outside the home, while curious neighbors gathered
nearby
behind red and yellow police tape cordoning off part of the street.
Throughout the day, fire trucks, police cruisers and media vans buzzed
along
the winding, narrow lane near the house. Shortly after 2 p.m., an
animal-control officer carried out the concealed remains of two dogs.
Grieving friends and family members - including the dead couple's only
other
child, Donald Connor 3d, who lives elsewhere in Levittown - huddled
together in
the chilly air outside the home, embracing and weeping.
Family members at the scene yesterday declined to comment.
Residents described the older Connors as well-known residents who had
lived in
the neighborhood for more than 25 years. Donald Connor was a
steelworker, and
Dale had worked in the warehouse of a local Kmart.
Colleen Connor recently attended Bucks County Community College and
worked at
Parkway Pizza, one of two local pizza parlors that relatives own and
operate.
"It's very sad," said Doris LaRue, who has lived two houses away from
the
Connors since the mid-1970s. "One death is bad enough, but to have all
four go
up like that - it's all so horrible."
Justin Robertson, 9, and Brandon Krzywulak, 7, who live in the
neighborhood,
said they sometimes played with Kacie.
"She was really nice," Krzywulak said. "We liked to play with her and
the two
dogs. One of [the dogs] was kind of mean, and she always kept it away
from me,
so I liked that."
Falls Township Supervisor Bill Dayton Jr., who came to the house to
share his
grief with family members, said he grew up with Donald Connor 3d and
knew his
parents and sister well.
"It's a very tragic loss for us. They were a great part of this
community,"
Dayton said.
"I just hope all of this hasn't happened in vain and that other
residents in
this community make sure they have working smoke detectors in their
homes."
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