EXETER TOWNSHIP -- Friday the 13th proved unlucky for a family in Luzerne County who lost everything in a fire and it happened when the temperatures were bitterly cold.
Nine different crews were called out to that fire on Gashi Road in Exeter Township. They were there for more than three hours.
The family said this fire took everything they ever had.
Tom Krostag stood outside his home telling firefighters he`s lucky to be alive.
“Everybody, please buy smoke detectors! They do work. That`s what saved my life,” Krostag said.
Krostag said just after 9:30 a.m. Friday he woke up to those smoke alarms going off and his home fully engulfed in flames.
“I was sleeping in the back bedroom here. I woke up to my smoke alarms going off and I start choking. I ran out to my living room, flames were coming in off my porch, already in my living room and through my window.”
The owner says the fire was caused by a heater he left on the front porch for his dog.
“He had to jump out the back window and when he`d come around, the dog was still attached to his chain. So trying to get the dog unchained, he said he burned his arm trying to rescue him,” Brenda Krostag said.
Brenda Krostag was at work and her son was at daycare when the fire started in their home. While she`s grateful her husband is alive and their dog was saved, she says she just can`t believe they lost everything else.
“The insurance company wouldn`t insure us because I was doing construction in the house and I had open walls with exposed wiring. So I couldn`t insure the house. Everything we own is gone,” Tom Krostag said.
Firefighters said they called the Red Cross to help the family, but Tom and Brenda Krostag say they have family members who live on that same street and for now they will stay with them until they can get back on their feet.
