‘Everything ... gone’

Son watches family homestead burn

Staff report

WARREN

George Goranitis stood outside the burning home at 314 Scott St. NE where he grew up and where his parents, George and Darlene, raised their family.

“Everything my mom and dad ever had — gone,” he said. “How does this happen?”

Goranitis appeared to be in shock, having just come down Park Avenue from the Ohio Inn tavern that he runs, to his parents’ house, which he owns, to watch Warren firefighters attend to the fire.

But the three-story home was a total loss, Fire Chief Ken Nussle said, pegging the damage at $49,000, the value of the property listed on the county auditor’s website.

“It’s really sad, but the fortunate thing is nobody got hurt,” Nussle said.

Goranitis was renting the apartment to a nephew and two others, he said, but none of them were home when the fire started.

George’s father, also named George, owned the Ohio Inn but died about six months ago.

The fire was reported at 11:53 a.m. and caused serious damage to all three floors of the home, which has five bedrooms and 2,890 finished square feet of living space. It has 12 rooms and was built in 1920.

“I kept the house when everybody said not to because it was so nice,” Goranitis said. “Unbelievable. It would cost a million dollars to rebuild that house because of all the woodwork.”

Scott Street, just north of downtown, is in an area that has been in decline in recent years, with illegal activity and violence becoming increasingly common.

Nussle said investigators were still looking into the cause of the fire Tuesday afternoon.