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Fire ravages Avella home for 2nd time in last year

2 min read
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If a house fire is a stroke of bad luck, then the chance of two fires occurring in one year is akin to being struck by lightning.

Yet that is exactly what happened to the Brooks family, who endured more devastation when their Independence Township home burned to the ground almost exactly one year after a fire rendered their residence unlivable.

Avella firefighters responded to a call at 4 a.m. Monday, and when they arrived the vacant house on Longview Drive had already burned to the basement level, said fire Chief Eric Temple.

“There wasn’t even no sense of pulling a fire hose out,” Temple said. “That thing had to have burned for at least two hours.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by state police fire marshal Steve Thompson. It was determined that the fire last August was caused by a candle burning in the bedroom. The fire caused extensive damage to the roof and two bedrooms, forcing the Brooks family to move out of their home. They could not be reached for comment.

Temple said there was no electrical service in the home at the time of the second fire, but there was still electricity running to the meter box on the house. Firefighters found a nozzle of some kind on the front porch, a beer can in the backyard and two fuel tanks in the basement.

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