COAL TOWNSHIP - Joe Bielski lived at 1262 Chemung St. all his life.
It was the home of his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather.
While the sun rose Thursday, Independence Day, a devastating fire spread throughout the home's second and third stories.
After 56 years at one address, Bielski is left to find a new place to live for him, his wife, Linda, and their three children, William, Kristine and Mariah.
"On the day I was born, they were knocking out the living room wall to make one big room," he said of his family converting the double home into a single.
Not suspicious
A state police fire marshal who investigated the scene Friday didn't rule conclusively on the cause. Joe said his son discovered the fire near a stove in the second-story kitchen at the four-story home.
The fire marshal said the home owner's information was "consistent" with what he discovered.
The cause is undetermined, Trooper Kirk Renn said, but it is not suspicious.
Joe and his brother, Carl, 49, sat across from the Chemung Street home Friday morning while Renn and Kevin Malukas, Coal Township's deputy fire chief, worked at the scene. A contractor was on hand to provide a demolition estimate. The home was insured and Joe was waiting to get in touch with his agent.
Glass lay broken on the front sidewalk. The second story was completely charred on the outside, and the third and fourth stories didn't fare much better. Siding on 1268 Chemung St., also owned by the Bielskis, was melted away.
A football autographed by the 1966 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers was placed in the bed of a pickup. Malukas pulled the prized possession out of the home on Friday and handed it over to Bielski. It was covered in soot.
"I'm tempted to wipe the soot off, but I'll leave it alone until I can find someone who knows what they're doing," Joe said.
Wife smelled smoke
The fire was reported at 6:22 a.m. Thursday. It was so far along when firefighters arrived that they kept to an exterior attack, opting not to enter the structure.
Joe was in Sunbury driving home from work at the time of the blaze. His wife smelled smoke and awoke their son to check around the house, he said. William, 22, burned his hand in the process. The Bielskis' daughters were asleep at the time. They were awakened and all four escaped.
William was treated at Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital. Joe said his son would receive further treatment at Lehigh Valley Hospital's burn center.
Firefighters
Three firefighters escaped serious injury after the roof above the rear porch collapsed onto them. They were evaluated - two on scene and one at the hospital - and went back to work.
The second and third stories sustained severe fire, smoke and water damage. The attic had smoke and water damage. The first floor took on water, too, and a little smoke.
Renn and Malukas were inside to investigate and the trooper himself acknowledged the danger.
"It's at the point where it might (collapse)," he said. "It's soaked with water."
The family is staying with a relative in the Fifth Ward of Shamokin. Joe said it is too early to say where they'd seek a new home. The plan for their property at 1268 Chemung St. hasn't changed, he said. He wants to fix it up and either rent or sell the property.
Joe thanked the firefighters, volunteers from the local chapter of the American Red Cross and his family, friends and neighbors. He also thanked a waitress at Maurer's Dairy and Ice Cream Shoppe on Market Street in Shamokin.
After the fire was out late Thursday morning and William was treated, Joe said the family was hungry. The waitress noticed William's hand wrapped and they told her about the fire.
The breakfast, she told them, was on the house.