By Margie Wuebker
mwuebker@dailystandard.com ROCKFORD -- A 59-year-old Van Wert woman has been credited with saving the lives of her three grandsons after fire broke out Tuesday morning at her son's home in Rockford.
Carol Longsworth was baby-sitting at the home of her son, Daniel Ganger, 403 N. West St., when 4-year-old Colin came into the kitchen and exclaimed -- "Grandma, fire!"
She quickly abandoned a batch of potato pancakes and ran into the living room, where flames danced along the couch and over a blanket.
"I grabbed the blanket intending to beat out the flames," she said. "Suddenly fire was everywhere."
Longsworth pushed the wide-eyed boy toward the kitchen, plucked his sleeping twin Brandon from a nearby bedroom and grabbed 15-month-old Dakota who had been with her in the kitchen. The windows at the front of the two-story white frame house blew out shortly after they escaped through a back door. She screamed for help and it wasn't long before sirens heralded the approach of Rockford firefighters.
"The front of the place was fully engulfed as we arrived," Rockford Fire Chief Ralph Rhoades said. "The living room and dining room were destroyed with heavy smoke and heat damage to the rest of the place. This was really a hot fire."
Two Rockford trucks and seven firefighters responded to the 11:05 a.m. call. Mendon Fire Department provided mutual aid with one truck and seven personnel.
Downed wires sparked near the street as firefighters approached and a utility crew came to turn off the power. The fire departments remained on the scene approximately 90 minutes.
"The baby sitter tried to call 911 but heat drove her and the kids out," Rhoades said. "This could have been a terrible tragedy if she had not acted quickly. She saved those kids."
Ganger learned of the fire at the home he was in the process of buying while working for Maharg's Trash Service. The family had lived there for six months. An uncle and then his boss assured him everyone had gotten out in time.
"I had to see my mom and my boys before I believed them," he said quietly. "I was so afraid that the news might be different once I got to the scene."
Ganger's four older children -- Corey, 15, Daniel, 14, Tina, 12, and Angel, 8, -- were attending classes in the Parkway Local School district at the time.
Corey Ganger, a freshman, was called home from school to see siding shriveled and blackened, a man's lone sandal laying on the grass, a child's pedal car with the back melted, his bedroom window partially covered with remnants of a soggy curtain, the front rooms nothing but charred ruins and the computer a twisted mass with a melted screen. The family lost everything including all the new school clothes their father purchased in preparation for the start of classes last week.
"God was with Grandma and my brothers," the oldest child told The Daily Standard on Tuesday night at the Amerihost Inn of St. Marys, where the family is temporarily residing. "We lost everything, but we still have Grandma, Brandon, Colin and Dakota. Things can be replaced; you can't replace lives."
Longsworth hugged her grandchildren tightly at the hotel and then dabbed away tears with a soggy tissue.
"I didn't have time to cry earlier because I had to take care of my grandbabies," she said in a voice quivering with emotion. "Now the tears won't stop as I think of what could have been."
Rhoades said this morning the investigation is continuing, although he suspects a child playing with a lighter may have sparked the $45,000 blaze. Ganger has insurance on the house but not the contents.
The Mercer County chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting the family with temporary lodging and clothing, according to health and safety Director Donna Smith. Anyone wishing to assist the Gangers should call the Red Cross at 419-586-2201 or family member Donna Laber, 419-584-2433. |
