Trevorton firefighter recalls effort to save sisters

by justin strawser

TREVORTON - The first small group of firefighters who arrived at 249 W. Shamokin St. on Dec. 11 ran inside with a hose, trying to douse the flames, knowing two people were reported trapped.

"The house was smoky and unstable," recalled Jim Hornberger Jr., 23, a member of Trevorton Fire Company. "There was stuff coming down and hitting our helmets. We knew it was already falling."

Hornberger traveled upstairs via the stairwell in the back garage and found

Pat Miller, the 77-year-old woman who lived in the house with her 95-year-old sister, Gertrude Koppenheffer. Miller was partially covered in debris in the living room, near the back of the house. She was unconscious.

"When I found her, the flames were about four feet away from her," Hornberger said. "She was laying there for awhile."

Hornberger, who had entered the house with fellow volunteer firefighters Mike Swinehart Jr., John Ridinger, Jack Reed and Deputy Chief Ed Reed, were able to get Miller to safety. But the burns she sustained over 35 percent of her body would claim her life five days later at the Regional Burn Center at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown.

Her sister never made it out.

And Hornberger will remember it all.

'It's not easy'

Hornberger was visibly nervous as he recounted the story in his living room at 449 W. Shamokin St., just a few blocks away, with his parents, niece and girlfriend.

A volunteer firefighter since 2005, he heard the call soon after he returned home from his job at Williamsport Wire Rope Works at 2:30 p.m. that Friday. At first, he didn't know which house was on fire, but when he ran outside, the street was shrouded in thick smoke.

He quickly got to the fire station, started up the truck and raced the three or four blocks to the scene.

Swinehart said situations like they would experience that day are always difficult.

"I'm doing the job," said Swinehart, 32, of Trevorton, a firefighter for 14 years, (but) "it's not easy."

Before rescue personnel arrived, Miller apparently entered the building while the fire raged in futile attempts to reach her sister, according to family members. Apparently overcome by smoke, she collapsed. She had also reportedly gone into cardiac arrest as Friday's events unfolded.

After she was rescued from her burning home, she was flown by helicopter to Allentown.

The second victim

Firefighters went back inside the house in search of Koppenheffer. Hornberger said he entered the kitchen area, where the victim was eventually found more than six hours later, buried in debris.

He didn't know at the time, but Hornberger believes now he was only a few feet from Koppenheffer when, at about 4 p.m., the "all-out" alarm was sounded, meaning it was too dangerous for any firefighters to remain in the building.

"If they hadn't blown the whistle, we would have found here," he said.

However, he said he has no idea whether finding her at that time would have saved her life, or whether she had already perished.

Later, when Northumberland County Fire Marshal Norman Fedder arrived at the scene and the search began for Koppenheffer's body, Hornberger was one of the men who assisted.

Connection to '06 fire

In a small community such as Trevorton, it seems everyone knows everyone, if only in passing. James Hornberger Sr. said his family knew Pat Miller, recalling, as many have since the blaze, how she was active in the community, particularly St. Patrick Church, only a block away her house, and the American Legion. She once operated Miller's Bakery from her home.

"I would catch Pat at the bank depositing money and would see her at Angie's (Markets). We would stop and talk," the elder Hornberger said.

Coincidently, Hornberger and his family used to live in another Trevorton house nine months before it was the scene of a fatal fire. In February 2006, a fire in the 100 block of West Shamokin, across the street and a block away from the Dec. 11 tragedy, destroyed a large apartment building and claimed the lives of five tenants.

"It was frustrating," Jim Hornberger said about fighting that fire and knowing some victims of the blaze. He had gone to school at Line Mountain with Althea Colasurdo-Adams, 19, who perished in the fire, and with Ryan Francis, 18, the only survivor from the apartment inside the building where five people died, who later committed suicide.

More volunteers?

After the Dec. 11 tragedy, Ed Hull, chairman of the Zerbe Township Board of Supervisors, said he was concerned about the lack of volunteers for the village fire department, particularly younger people.

Asked if he agreed if more volunteers might have made a difference in Friday's tragedy or the ones preceding it, Jim Hornberger acknowledged manpower is limited.

"A lot of people don't want to go inside or get on the ladder; maybe if we had more active firefighters," he said. "We only had three people, plus a driver and a chief on the scene (at first). If we had more people. ..."

"Everybody was doing what they were trained to do," commented Ed Reed, who has been a firefighter in Trevorton for nearly 25 years. "We did our jobs, what we were trained to do, everyone on scene that day. The outcome didn't come out the way we hoped."

Reed complimented the firefighters who responded, which included those from departments in Trevorton, Lower Augusta, Stonington, Shamokin, Coal Township, East Cameron, Pillow and Kulpmont.

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