By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Lara Martin-Lengel watched as firefighters gathered in the front yard of her home after putting out the fire inside at 1110 Blue Jay this afternoon.
“I never thought anything like this could ever possibly happen,” she said as she stood across the street.
The house suffered serious damage, but most importantly, Martin-Lengel’s daughter who lived in the house was not home at the time.
“Thank God she wasn’t home,” Lengel said of Daniella Fedek-Lengel.
The fire call came in around 2 p.m., when neighbors noticed the smoke. Some neighbors attempted to put out the blaze with a garden hose.
“When we got here, they were using garden hoses, but the fire was too advanced for them to do anything,” Bowling Green Fire Chief Bill Moorman said.
Kyle Hammersmith was passing by the Wood County Fairgrounds when he saw smoke billowing from the scene. He followed the smoke and saw neighbors trying to help.
“People were trying to go at the deck, and it was majorly involved in flames,” Hammersmith said.
When fire and police arrived on the scene, another neighbor Doug Krieger notified them that a dog also lived in the house. It was later determined the dog was safe with Fedek-Lengel.
As she watched from across the street, Martin-Lengel agonized over how the fire might have started. She and her husband, Scott, had been very safety conscious and had a fire safety inspection conducted on the house last December.
Back of home at 1110 Blue Jay
Though it was too soon to determine the cause of the blaze, Moorman said the fire started in the back of the house, with the attic suffering the most damage. Once the fire was extinguished, crews continued to make sure there were no other hot spots in the house.
Once outside, the firefighters shed some of their heavier gear. The chief said the temperatures in the upper 80s take a toll on firefighters.
“No day’s a good day to be fighting fire, but when it’s in the 80s, it really taxes the guys,” Moorman said.
In addition to Bowling Green Fire Division, Middleton Township Fire Department and Medic 120 also responded to the blaze.
