FIRE FORCES FAMILY FROM HOME

Elyria – An early evening fire in West Ridge Green Mobile Home Park has left one family with two 11-year-old girls wondering what they will do now.

The homeowner, Valerie Buksa, was visiting her son at the Cleveland Clinic when the blaze broke out in the trailer. Buksa’s two twin 11-year-old daughters were inside at the time of the fire. “They were in the living room and my one daughter started walking towards a back room when she saw flames coming from my bedroom. Once she saw that she quickly got her sister and our animals and got out of the house.”

The girls then ran to a neighbor, Melanie Laub, to tell her what was happening as they have been told to do in the case of any emergency. Laub said she then began alerting neighbors. “When I stepped outside I saw the flames shooting from the back window so I started knocking on doors and windows to make sure neighbors got out of their trailers.”

Laub said that neighbors attempted to extinguish the blaze by using garden hoses and fire extinguishers but the fire was just too much. “We did everything we could to save her home but in the end the fact that the two girls got out ok and that the family pets are all out ok, that means more then any trailer or home.”

Captain Joe Pronesti of the Elyria Fire Department said that when they rolled up on scene they had fire and smoke coming from the trailer windows. “When the Engine 3 Crew got inside and tried to advance they ran into a lot of clutter in the home, the fire began to flash so I pulled them out of the home. We then hit the fire from the outside and put it out, the guys then went inside and mopped up.”

Pronesti said that Avon and Lorain Fire Departments provided mutual aid assistance by covering two stations while Elyria Firefighters were at the scene.

Elyria Fire dispatched the local American Red Cross to assist the family as they have lost just about everything inside of their home.

Although Pronesti would not speculate on the cause of the fire, family members believe the fire was electrical due to problems that the home has had for the last two years. Pronesti said that the Elyria Fire Prevention Bureau was on the scene trying to locate the cause.


To see more photos from the scene: CLICK HERE