Area firefighters battle 2nd fatal blaze in week

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI

jgrzelewski@vindy.com

NORTH LIMA

For the second time in a week, one Beaver Township neighborhood is victim to a fatal fire.

Susan Puhalla, 55, died Wednesday in a house fire at the corner of East Harvard Boulevard and Laird Avenue.

Puhalla’s husband managed to escape and was treated at an area hospital.

The event rattled neighbors who lost another neighbor just days earlier.

It also was taxing for the firefighters who responded, many of whom had responded to a fire at the Canfield Industrial Park in Green Township early Wednesday.

Green Township Fire Chief Todd Baird described the situation as “tough,” but said that firefighters “stick together.”

Green, Damascus, Perry, Beaver, Canfield, Springfield, Columbiana and Ellsworth firefighters responded to the industrial park fire, the call for which came in shortly before 3 a.m.

Beaver, Green, Springfield and Boardman responded to the Beaver Township incident about 11:30 a.m.

The industrial fire was inside a large building where Saddle Creek Farms had animal bedding and machinery stored. Firefighters had the fire under control by 4:30 a.m., but did not leave the scene until after 10:30 a.m.

Fighting the industrial fire required firefighters to go out and fill tankers with water since there were no fire hydrants nearby.

One Springfield firefighter filling a tanker had a medical condition unrelated to the fire and went to the hospital.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Adding to the firefighters’ burden was that the Beaver Township volunteer firefighters who responded to the fatal fire Wednesday also responded to a fatal fire on Forest Avenue late last Thursday night. Fire Chief Larry Sauerwein said he likely will organize a stress debriefing for his firefighters, all of whom are volunteers.

The Mahoning County Coroner’s office on Wednesday identified the victim in the Forest Avenue fire as Judy Robinson, 64. Forest Avenue is just a few streets over from the house at 9221 Harvard Boulevard that burned Wednesday.

“It’s very scary,” said Irene Calvin, describing both houses as old. “It just makes you think that you don’t want to take life for granted because you never know what could happen.”

She described the neighborhood as one where everybody knows each other.

“And we all watch out for everybody,” she said.

The Puhallas’ family, too, is close-knit, relatives at the scene said.

Rick Salus, a nephew of the Puhallas, said he lives across the street and just saw his uncle a few days ago when he helped him install a new mailbox.

Jennifer Wade, the couple’s niece, described the couple as generous, caring, and as being happily married for more than 30 years.

“They both loved each other. Big hearts. They’ve known each other since their late teens,” she said. “They were a beautiful couple. They loved life. They enjoyed being with each other.”

“My Aunt Sue is going to be missed,” Wade said.

Sauerwein said the call this morning came in for a “confirmed structure fire with entrapment.” He said that two or three rooms of the house caught fire, and that Susan Puhalla was in the bathroom at the time.

The state fire marshal is investigating both of Wednesday’s incidents, as well as the Forest Avenue fire.

A Beaver Township volunteer firefighter who was at the scene of the Harvard Boulevard fire Wednesday appeared rattled by the event. He approached a resident of the neighborhood and emphatically urged her to organize a campaign to get people to install smoke detectors in their homes.

“Because it gives them the time to get out and call from outside, and say, ‘My house is on fire and we are outside of it,’” said Gary Borman. “We’ve had two fires here recently. No smoke detectors.”

“This is tough,” he said. “The deaths are avoidable. Maybe not the fires. But the deaths are avoidable.”

Contributor: Kalea Hall, staff writer.