Apartment Fire Displaces 4 Families

Horsham officials are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out Tuesday morning, leaving four families homeless. 

Horsham Fire Marshal George Fida told Patch that a 21-year-old occupant of a first-floor apartment sustained first degree burns on his hands and forearms and first and second degree burns on his face after attempting to extinguish the fire, which began while he was cooking French fries.

Fida said the man was treated and released from Abington Memorial Hospital on Tuesday and will follow up with Temple's burn unit on Wednesday.

The fire began around 11 a.m. in unit L-177 at Maple Hill Apartments on Maple Avenue and quickly spread to the upstairs unit where Chris Brennan, his wife and seven children lived. 

In all, two first floor and two second floor units sustained fire damage and are all uninhabitable, Horsham Fire Co. Chief Tim Flanagan said.

As he watched firefighters work on his burnt residence, Brennan, while clutching his 8-month-old daughter, told Patch, "Everything we had is gone."

Brennan and five of his children were home when the fire started and all safely evacuated.

As fire officials wrapped up Tuesday afternoon, neighbors offered sneakers to two of Brennan's shoeless toddlers.

"We have family that's already here," Brennan said. "The Red Cross is supposed to come out too."

Although his family escaped without injury, Brennan said their cat and turtle perished in the fire.

While Fida said that "all the direct fire damage was confined to that apartment" where the fire broke out, he told Patch that the other three apartments in the pod suffered varying degrees of smoke, heat and water damage. "All four are uninhabitable."

American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania Spokeswoman Sara Smith said in all 13 people were impacted. Of those, Smith said the Red Cross is providing two families–11 people in all–with financial assistance for food, clothing, shoes and lodging. An apartment occupant of another unit is being assisted with money for food, shoes and clothing, but has somewhere to stay, Smith said. 

The remaining individual, a one-person household, has been offered and declined assistance, she said.

"The Red Cross will follow up with that person in case that changes," Smith said.

Gary Bissig, Horsham's Emergency Management deputy coordinator, said that all of the residents affected by the fire had tenants insurance coverage. 

"This will go a long way in replacing what they lost," Bissig said. "The Red Cross was great in providing vouchers for hotel and clothing. When I left after meeting with the Red Cross, there were no immediate unmet needs."   

Besides the four-unit pod hit hardest by Tuesday's fire, Fida said two other neighboring apartments had "very light smoke conditions" and were "not rendered uninhabitable."

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