The cause of a fire that destroyed a home Tuesday night at 36 Rosedale Ave. is still under investigation.
No one was injured in the blaze, said Lt. Mike Campogiani of the Bradford City Fire Department.
However, the fire caused an estimated $100,000 in damage at 36 Rosedale, according to a Ridgway-based state police fire marshal, Trooper Russell Stewart. A neighboring home at 32 Rosedale had siding damaged by the fire, the result of “mostly heat, not flame,” Campogiani added.
At 9:11 p.m. Tuesday, a passing motorist reported the fully involved house fire, which “originated inside the front room of the structure,” Stewart explained.
Campogiani said the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) was also called to the scene, while the Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department was on standby at the city’s central station, and the Derrick City Volunteer Fire Department was on standby at the Derrick City station.
Campogiani said everyone was clear at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, which put firefighters on the scene for about 3½ hours.
Despite the cold temperatures, made more bitter by high winds, firefighters did not have issues from the weather except trying to stay warm, Campogiani said.
“We did call in public works,” he noted, explaining the city employees salted the street to keep it from getting too icy after firefighters battled the blaze.
Officials reported that Jessica Luce, 31, of Bradford, owns the 36 Rosedale Ave. house that was destroyed, and Ronald and Kathleen Symington — who were out of town at the time of the fire — own the 32 Rosedale Ave. house. A bystander at the scene said the Luce family was also not home when the fire began.
A GoFundMe page titled “Lost everything is a house fire” has been set up to help Luce and her family. The page states that she was at work at the time of the fire, and her four children were being watched by a sitter.