Family left homeless after fire levels trailer
By Mike Joseph - mjoseph@centredaily.com

PLEASANT GAP -- A young couple and their toddler were left homeless Tuesday when a wind-driven fire flashed through their trailer home at 268 Whitman Ave., Pleasant Gap.

Dawn and Ronald Barr and their son, Cameron, 3, were not at home at the time of the fire and no one else was in the trailer. But their cat, Midnight, died. Pleasant Gap Fire Chief Gary Royer said firefighters tried to rescue the cat.

"They tried to grab it and it ran away from them, and it got too hot. I'm sure it was scared," Royer said.

Royer said the fire started in the middle of the trailer, where the trailer's kerosene furnace was located, and a state police fire marshal told Royer a furnace malfunction was the likely cause of the blaze.

"That's where the bulk of the fire was," Royer said, "but there wasn't much left of it to figure out what happened."

Amid frigid, 18-degree temperatures, Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte firefighters used hooks and the force of water to tear down the charred wooden framework and the tin roof that remained after most of the fire was put out.

Dawn Barr's mother, Cindy Meyer, lives nearby. She said her daughter, son-in-law and grandson lost virtually all they owned in the fire and will be living with her in the immediate future. The Red Cross gave the family clothing, Royer said.

The fire began shortly before noon and sent clouds of heavy, dark smoke into the clear, blue sky, attracting a crowd of neighbors from the residential area near Harrison Road. When the Barrs got to their home within an hour, they fell into the arms of Meyer and wept.

The Barrs purchased the trailer and the one-third-acre lot two years ago.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.

Photos and news article provided courtesy of the Centre Daily Times.