East Side home goes up in flames

May 23, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Robert Kish knew the fire in his Council Rock Drive home Thursday morning was serious when he could see flames through a second- floor heating grate.

Kish managed to get out of the East Side home in the 1500 block of Council Rock, but he feared his six cats inside did not. He tried to go back in and get them, but the smoke was just too intense, he said. The cats are presumed dead.

“The smoke was too thick,” he said through tears. “I could not get back.”

Firefighters said the home was a total loss. It burst into flames about 10:15 a.m., and heat warped the siding on a house next to it and damaged a car in a drive on the other side of the home.

Fire Investigator Capt. Alvin Ware said the blaze started in the back of the home. There were several space heaters in the back. Kish said he used the heaters for the cats.

Kish said he was upstairs when the fire started in a bedroom and the smoke was very thick. He said he then saw flames through the heating grate and knew it was time to get out,.

“The smoke was so black, I couldn’t see anything but flames,” Kish said. “I got out. It was choking me. I could see the flames through the heating grates.”

Kish said he ran down the stairs and out the door, then tried to go back inside and get his cats, but by then it was too late.

Kish said he bought the home in 1989 from the previous family that lived there.

Ware said by the time firefighters arrived, the home was a total loss.

Kish said he probably would have to spend the night at his parents’ house. He had a dog that was in the detached garage at the time of the fire, and that dog survived, Kish said.

A space heater also is blamed for causing more than $1,200 in damage to a 1507 Bennington Ave. home about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.